About Me

Persons is a behavioral ecologist, studying chemically-mediated predator-prey interactions and sexual selection in wolf spiders. He and his students examine the information content of silk in antipredator, foraging, and mating decisions. Recent publications include: “Multimodal signaling: the importance of chemical and visual cues from females to the behaviour of male wolf spiders,” published in the journal Animal Behaviour; “Dragline deposition patterns among male and female Hogna helluo (Araneae, Lycosidae) in the presence of chemical cues from prey,” published in the Journal of Arachnology, and “Evolutionarily costly courtship displays in a wolf spider: a test of viability indicator theory,” published in the journal Behavioral Ecology.

He teaches the introductory course Ecology, Evolution, and Heredity; upper-level courses Animal Behavior, Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, and Invertebrate Zoology; the freshman seminar, Perspectives; and a non-majors course in Human Ecology. He currently serves as a director of the American Arachnological Society.

Courses Taught