Abstract:Chemical signals are generally applied by spiders for intra- and interspecific communication. It is probably the first way that brought female and male spiders together for reproduction. In this study, choice preferences of adults and spiderlings in the funnel-web spider Pireneitega luctuosa to conspecific webs and body volatiles were tested using the two-choice arena system (Fig. 1). The Chi-square test was applied to analyze the preferences of tested spiders in the two-choice experiments using software SPSS 19.0 and Origin Pro 8. The results showed as the following: ① Both of the males and females displayed significant preference to webs (P < 0.001, Fig. 2 & Fig. 3) and body volatiles (P < 0.05, Fig. 5 & Fig. 6) of opposite sex in P. luctuosa. They stayed longer and showed more probing and weaving behavior in the chambers which were occupied by webs or body volatiles from the opposite sex. ② Both of the males and females were repelled by the body volatiles released from conspecific spiderlings (P < 0.05, Fig. 5 & Fig. 6). They preferred to stay and weave their webs in the control chambers instead of the chambers occupied by body volatiles of conspecific spiderlings. ③ Spiderlings of P. luctuosa were attracted by webs waved by both conspecific spiderlings and males (P < 0.001, Fig. 4). They were also attracted by body volatiles released from conspecific spiderings (P < 0.05, Fig. 7). Our results suggest that spiderlings of P. luctuosa preferred to live close to each other, which is probably the critical factor to aggregated distribution of this spider species. Our study verified that webs and body volatiles elicit preference or repellence behavior of conspecifics in the funnel-web spider P. luctuosa, thus confirming that semiochemicals associating with spider webs and bodies are applied for intraspecific communication and behavior orientation in P. luctuosa.