Extreme short-term repeatability of male courtship performance in a tropical orb-web spider (original) (raw)
Related papers
2013
Abstract Web-building spiders are important models for sexual selection. While our understanding of post-copulatory mechanisms including sperm competition and cryptic female choice is considerable, our knowledge of courtship and how it influences male and female mating decisions is still extremely poor. Here, we provide the first comprehensive description of male courtship behaviour and vibrations generated in the web by the orb-web spider, Argiope keyserlingi–a recognised model species.
Vibratory courtship in a web-building spider: signalling quality or stimulating the female?
Animal Behaviour, 2003
Courtship behaviour in spiders in the form of premating vibrations by males may function (1) as a male identity signal used for species recognition, (2) in suppression of female aggressiveness, (3) to stimulate female mating behaviour, or (4) as a quality signal used in female choice. We investigated the function of web vibration by male Stegodyphus lineatus in a series of experiments. Regardless of vibratory performance, all males mated successfully with virgin females but only 56.4% of males mated with nonvirgin females. Vibratory performance did not influence male mating success, but heavier males had a higher probability of mating with mated females. Males vibrated less often and produced fewer vibrations when introduced on the web of a mated female. Males that vibrated webs of virgin females mated faster than nonvibrating males, but there was no effect of vibration rate or body mass. There was no effect of male vibratory effort or vibration rate on female reproductive success measured as time to egg laying, clutch size, number of hatched young, number of dispersed young and offspring body mass after a single mating. Males vibrated on abandoned virgin female webs but the response decreased with increasing duration of female absence, suggesting that females produce a web-borne pheromone, which elicits male vibrating behaviour. Mated females were less receptive and not stimulated by male vibrating behaviour. We conclude that male premating vibrations in S. lineatus do not function as a male quality signal selected via female choice. Rather, the primary function of this behaviour may be to stimulate a receptive female to mate.
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Condition-dependent secondary sexual traits and signals are often crucial for mate choice decisions. Nuptial gifts, provided by the male to the female during mating, may represent an indicator of male condition, especially if production of the gift is energetically costly. Additionally, other signalling modalities may well play a role in mate choice in such systems. Females of the nursery web spider Pisaura mirabilis preferably mate with males that provide a prey item wrapped in silk. Apart from the nuptial gift, vibrational signals employed during courtship and mating may reveal additional information about male condition. We tested condition-dependence of male vibrational signals of well-fed versus starved males, when in contact with female dragline silk and during mating trials. Our results show that vibrational signals are produced in P. mirabilis, both during pre-copulatory courtship and during copulation. Male courtship signals were condition-dependent: males in good condition...
Courtship effort is a better predictor of mating success than ornamentation for male wolf spiders
Behavioral Ecology, 2009
Female mate choice decisions are often based on a variety of male characteristics, some of which may reflect male quality via condition-dependent trait expression. Here, we explore the condition dependence of a male secondary sexual trait in a wolf spider and examine its influence on female mate choice. In the wolf spider Schizocosa uetzi, mature males possess a multimodal courtship display (visual 1 seismic) in which they slowly raise and lower their dark colored forelegs. Foreleg color is highly variable among S. uetzi males with respect to both total amount and darkness. Using diet manipulations in conjunction with color quantifications, we demonstrate condition-dependent foreleg color. High-nutrient diet males had significantly higher body condition indices and possessed more and darker foreleg color than low-nutrient diet males. However, using multiple mate choice designs, we were unable to demonstrate a female preference for male foreleg color. Using both single and 2-choice mating designs as well as using females from a range of ages, we found that copulation success was consistently independent of male foreleg color. Instead, we found courtship intensity to be the only aspect of male courtship that influenced copulation success-males that copulated displayed more leg raises per second than those that did not copulate.
Male courtship vibrations delay predatory behaviour in female spiders
Scientific reports, 2013
During courtship, individuals transfer information about identity, mating status and quality. However, male web-building spiders face a significant problem: how to begin courting female spiders without being mistaken for prey? Male Argiope spiders generate distinctive courtship vibrations (shudders) when entering a female's web. We tested whether courtship shudders delay female predatory behaviour, even when live prey is present in the web. We presented a live cricket to females during playbacks of shudder vibrations, or white noise, and compared female responses to a control in which we presented a live cricket with no playback vibrations. Females were much slower to respond to crickets during playback of shudder vibrations. Shudder vibrations also delayed female predatory behaviour in a related spider species, showing that these vibrations do not simply function for species identity. These results suggest that male web-building spiders employ a phylogenetically conserved vibra...
Male courtship repeatability and potential indirect genetic benefits in a wolf spider
Animal Behaviour, 2009
Pardosa milvina repeatability sexual communication wolf spider Indirect benefits derived by females that mate with males that express preferred traits are important to our understanding of 'good genes' models of sexual selection. However, few studies have explored male courtship behaviours with potential indirect benefits conferred to females in order to ascertain whether these behaviours serve as honest indicators of male quality. Using a common species of wolf spider, Pardosa milvina, we addressed the honesty of male courtship behaviours in two laboratory experiments. In our first experiment, we quantified the repeatability of courtship rate in adult males that were manipulated to be in high or low condition and were sequentially presented with adult virgin females that similarly differed in body condition. In our second experiment, we explored the effect of male courtship rate on several measures of fitness: number of offspring produced, days until offspring emerged and offspring viability measured as offspring survival. Our experiments show that male courtship rate is statistically significantly repeatable except when males in high condition have repeated encounters with females in low condition. Our results also reveal that females have the potential to gain indirect genetic benefits by mating with males that naturally court at high rates: females produced more offspring that emerged from eggsacs sooner and survived starvation better compared to females that mated with males that naturally courted at low rates. Our study provides additional support that male courtship rate is an honest indicator of quality, and it makes the novel finding that the repeatability of courtship rate is context sensitive. Ó
Behavioral Ecology, 2012
Reproductive success relies on communication signals used by females to exert mate attraction and assessment of female reproductive value by males. During mate search males of the spider, Stegodyphus lineatus experience high mortality and low female encounter rate. Females vary in sexual maturity and mating status (virgin and mated) and hence in reproductive value for males, which should influence male mating effort. Due to high costs of remating, only virgin females are expected to signal mate attraction. Males would benefit from mating preferentially with virgins due to the costs of overcoming mated females' resistance, although they gain paternity share. Males should avoid immature females, unless guarding precopulatory to access females on maturation. Low encounter rates predict males to invest also in females of inferior reproductive value. We investigated male ability to discriminate immature, virgin, and mated females by assessing: the number of females males visit in the field; male mating effort and male discrimination of females based on silk cues in laboratory trials. In the field, males were found most frequently with virgin females. Male mating effort, copulation success, and preference based on silk cues were higher with mature compared with immature females. Our data suggest that females signal sexual receptivity and that males are able to discriminate both sexual maturity and mating status, however, males do not exert strong preference for virgins. The combination of high costs of mate search and low encounter rate likely exerts selection on males to mate indiscriminately and overcome female resistance to remating.
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2002
The costs of courtship and mating may include increased risks of predation, the transmission of pathogens, and a loss of foraging opportunities. Thus, a female's decision to tolerate a courting male will depend upon how these costs offset the benefits of mating, which will depend on her reproductive and nutritional status. While these costs may be similar for mated and unmated females, the benefits of mating will be less for mated than virgin females. However, the cost of lost foraging opportunities may be higher for females with fewer nutritional reserves necessary for forming eggs. We examined how these costs and benefits influence the courtship and mating behaviour of male and female orb-web spiders, Argiope keyserlingi. In the field, females on webs that also contained a courting male intercepted fewer prey items per hour than females on webs without a male. In the laboratory, the presence of a courting male at the hub also attracted mantid predators to the web, increasing the risk of predation for both male and female. Staged mating experiments in the laboratory revealed that the frequency of female attacks and pre-copulatory cannibalism was greater among mated than virgin females. Feeding history did not affect aggression in virgin females but, among mated females, food-deprived spiders attacked and cannibalized males more frequently than sated females and only the latter ever remated. These differences in female behaviour influenced male mating strategies. Choice experiments demonstrated that males preferred to venture onto the silk threads of virgin rather than those of mated females. Similar patterns of mate selectivity were observed in the field; females with narrow abdomens attracted more males to the webs than females with broad abdomens, and copulations were observed more frequently among females with narrow abdomens. These smaller females are likely to be virgins that have recently molted. Males that preferentially mate with virgin females will not only avoid potentially fatal attacks but also obtain, on average, a higher fertilization success.