Differential allocation in a gift-giving spider: males adjust their reproductive investment in response to female condition
| Autor: | Diego Solano-Brenes, Maria J. Albo, Luiz Ernesto Costa-Schmidt, Glauco Machado |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | Solano‑Brenes Diego, Costa‑Schmidt Luiz Ernesto, Albo Maria Jose, Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias. Instituto de Biología., Machado Glauco |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine Male Evolution media_common.quotation_subject Silk Biology 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Courtship 03 medical and health sciences Sexual Behavior Animal REPRODUÇÃO Copulation QH359-425 Sperm transfer Pre-copulatory courtship Animals Nuptial gift Sperm competition health care economics and organizations QH540-549.5 media_common Body condition Ecology Research Reproduction Copulatory courtship Mating effort Cryptic male choice Spiders General Medicine Mating system Investment (macroeconomics) Sperm Parental effort Male mate choice 030104 developmental biology Female Scramble competition Paternal care Demography |
| Zdroj: | BMC Ecology and Evolution Repositório Institucional da USP (Biblioteca Digital da Produção Intelectual) Universidade de São Paulo (USP) instacron:USP COLIBRI Universidad de la República instacron:Universidad de la República BMC Ecology and Evolution, Vol 21, Iss 1, Pp 1-15 (2021) |
| ISSN: | 2730-7182 |
| Popis: | Background When males are selective, they can either reject low-quality females or adjust their reproductive investment in response to traits that indicate female quality (e.g., body size or condition). According to the differential allocation hypothesis, males increase their reproductive investment when paired with high-quality females (positive differential allocation) or increase their reproductive investment when paired with low-quality females (negative differential allocation). This hypothesis has been proposed for monogamous species with biparental care, and most empirical studies focus on birds. Here we used the polygamous spider Paratrechalea ornata, in which males offer prey wrapped in silk as nuptial gifts, to test whether males adjust their reproductive investment in gift size, pre-copulatory and copulatory courtship, and sperm transfer in response to female body condition. Results Males exposed to females in good body condition added more flies to the gift, stimulated these females longer with abdominal touches during pre-copulatory courtship, and had longer pedipalp insertions than males exposed to females in poor body condition. Female condition affected neither silk investment in nuptial gift wrapping nor the quantity of sperm transferred by males. Finally, females in good body condition oviposited faster after copulation and laid more eggs than females in poor body condition. Conclusions We provide experimental evidence that males of a gift-giving spider exhibit positive differential allocation in three key aspects of their reproductive investment: the size of the nutritious gift, duration of pre-copulatory courtship, and duration of pedipalp insertions, which is regarded as a form of copulatory courtship in spiders. This positive differential allocation is likely associated with the benefits of copulating with females in good body condition. These females are more fecund and oviposit faster after copulation than females in poor body condition, which under natural field conditions probably reduces the risk of multiple matings and thus the level of sperm competition faced by the males. As a final remark, our findings indicate that the hypothesis of differential allocation also applies to species with a scramble competition mating system, in which males heavily invest in nuptial gift construction, but not in parental care. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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