Scientists Painted Male Jumping Spiders Red To Test The "Sea Of Red" Hypothesis

The jumping spider genus Habronattus consists of around 100 species that all diverged from each other within the last 2.5 million years. To breed, the males typically perform displays involving movement, vibrations, and ornamentation. Sometimes the males of these species will even perform successful mating displays to females of different species. By doing this, they've become a good model to study hybridization and how female choice plays a part in species diversification. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

H. americanus have simple displays but impressive red coloration on their pedipals, legs, and chelicera. H. sansoni, on the other hand, is brown overall with two black stripes over the eyes and typically no r