Hemicentetes Semispinosus

Does barbed detachable spines of Hemicentetes semispinosus affect the rate of the protection from predators?

Introduction The species of Hemicentetes semispinosus have thin keratinous quills on their torso. The spines serve for communication among species (Endo et al. 2010). Using the spines, individuals can send and receive a signal from each other, by its vibration reflection (Endo et al. 2010). It was stated that Hemicentetes semispinosus species have unique mechanism of recognition vibrations (Endo et al. 2010). It was received that typical adults have the spines, which are 16.8 mm in length and 8.55 mm in width (Endo et al. 2010).
Spines serve as a protective «repellent» mechanism against predators (Speed and Ruxton 2005). Due to

The experiment will start and finish at exactly the same time for all three groups.
I will seat two predators next to each cage. There will be six individuals of Dumeril's boas (Acrantophis dumerilli). They will be remaining hungry equally.

Predictions
The null hypothesis for the experiment is that the presence of spines does not affect the rate of the protection from predators. It is assumed that individuals without any spines will be eaten to a greater extent than control group. In this way, my null hypothesis will be rejected, because the presence of spines of Hemicentetes semispinosus will affect the rate of the protection from predators.
It is possible that all individuals of Hemicentetes semispinosus will be eaten in the same rate. In this case my null hypothesis will be accepted. I will conclude that the spines do not affect the rate of the protection from predators.

Thus, the trait does not contribute to the species fitness. The trait performs a different role. Hideki Endo, Daisuke Koyabu, Junpei Kimura, Felix Rakotondraparany, Atsushi Matsui, Takahiro Yonezawa, Akio Shinohara and Masami Hasegawa showed in their research study that the spines serve as apparatus for communication between individuals (Endo et al. 2010). The authors also claimed that the spines contribute to the sense of smell (Endo et al.