scholarly journals Remote copulation: male adaptation to female cannibalism

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 512-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daiqin Li ◽  
Joelyn Oh ◽  
Simona Kralj-Fišer ◽  
Matjaž Kuntner
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Sperm Transfer ◽  
Copulation Duration ◽  
Sexual Cannibalism ◽  
Empirical Testing ◽  
Web Spider ◽  
Maladaptive Behaviour ◽  
Orb Web ◽  
Male Organ

Sexual cannibalism by females and associated male behaviours may be driven by sexual conflict. One such male behaviour is the eunuch phenomenon in spiders, caused by total genital emasculation, which is a seemingly maladaptive behaviour. Here, we provide the first empirical testing of an adaptive hypothesis to explain this behaviour, the remote copulation, in a highly sexually cannibalistic orb-web spider Nephilengys malabarensis . We demonstrate that sperm transfer continues from the severed male organ into female genitals after the male has been detached from copula. Remote copulation increases the total amount of sperm transferred, and thus probably enhances paternity. We conclude that the mechanism may have evolved in response to sexual cannibalism and female-controlled short copulation duration.

Does personality explain variation in the probability of sexual cannibalism in the orb-web spider Argiope aurantia?

Behaviour ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 150 (14) ◽  
pp. 1731-1746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias W. Foellmer ◽  
Kapil K. Khadka
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Sexual Cannibalism ◽  
Bet Hedging ◽  
Species Identity ◽  
Web Spider ◽  
Large Size ◽  
Argiope Aurantia ◽  
Foraging Decisions ◽  
Orb Web

Sexual cannibalism is often hypothesized to be an extreme manifestation of sexual conflict, yet we still lack a good understanding of the underlying motivation in most species. Hypotheses for the ultimate causes of sexual cannibalism either invoke the behavior as adaptive or mal-adaptive. Adaptive hypotheses consider foraging decisions, mate choice or genetic bet-hedging. Mal-adaptive hypotheses propose that sexual cannibalism is the result of mistaken species identity or the by-product of an aggression syndrome. Here, we test the latter hypothesis, that sexual cannibalism is the result of an aggression syndrome. This hypothesis states that aggressive behavior is favored in the foraging context because females benefit from achieving a large size quickly through an increase in fecundity, and it predicts that individuals that are aggressive foragers are more likely to attack a male and hence are at risk of receiving no or insufficient quantities of sperm. Few tests of this hypothesis are available to date, and only one involved a species with sexual cannibalism occurring after at least some sperm transfer. We test the hypothesis in Argiope aurantia, a species in which females frequently attack males during copulation. We estimated aggressiveness in the foraging context in penultimate and adults females and staged matings using the same females to evaluate whether aggressiveness during the foraging context predicts the likelihood of sexual cannibalism. Indeed, we find that aggressive foragers are more likely to attack their mates, but we conclude that other, possibly adaptive reasons for cannibalism exist as much of the uncertainty in cannibalism occurrence remained unexplained.

Mate binding: male adaptation to sexual conflict in the golden orb-web spider (Nephilidae: Nephila pilipes)

2011 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. 1299-1304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shichang Zhang ◽  
Matjaž Kuntner ◽  
Daiqin Li
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Web Spider ◽  
Orb Web

scholarly journals Male copulation frequency, sperm competition and genital damage in the golden orb-web spider (Nephila plumipes)

2008 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jutta M. Schneider ◽  
Marie E. Herberstein ◽  
Matthew J. Bruce ◽  
Michael M. Kasumovic ◽  
Melissa L. Thomas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mate Guarding ◽  
Reproductive Organs ◽  
Mating Frequency ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Sexual Cannibalism ◽  
Loss Of Function ◽  
Web Spider ◽  
Duration Of Copulation ◽  
Orb Web ◽  
Nephila Plumipes

Copulation in many sexually cannibalistic spiders is associated with a loss of function of the male reproductive organs and, as a consequence, males that survive sexual cannibalism may nevertheless be unable to subsequently copulate successfully. Sexual cannibalism is common in the Australian golden orb-web spider (Nephila plumipes), in which the tip of the conductor typically breaks during copulation. Thus, male mating frequency may be physiologically limited to two females, irrespective of the male’s ability to avoid cannibalism or the opportunity to locate and court additional, receptive females. Laboratory experiments revealed that the likelihood of the conductor breaking depends upon the copulatory history of the female insemination duct: males were more likely to break their conductor if they inseminated a ‘virgin’ rather than ‘mated’ insemination duct. However, the choice of insemination duct did not influence the duration of copulation or quantity of sperm transferred. In field populations, the proportion of males with both conductors broken increased during the course of the mating season, but while males with broken conductors did not copulate successfully with virgin females, they were nevertheless observed on the webs of immature females. We suggest that male N. plumipes with broken conductors on the webs of females are most likely mate guarding, as this appears to be the most effective mechanism of securing paternity.

scholarly journals One size fits all? Determinants of sperm transfer in a highly dimorphic orb-web spider

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 1106-1120 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. A. Assis ◽  
M. W. Foellmer
Keyword(s):  
Sperm Transfer ◽  
Web Spider ◽  
Orb Web

scholarly journals Males of the orb-web spider Argiope bruennichi sacrifice themselves to unrelated females

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 585-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaas W. Welke ◽  
Jutta M. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Paternal Care ◽  
Genetic Relatedness ◽  
Selective Pressure ◽  
Mating Behaviour ◽  
Copulation Duration ◽  
Female Fecundity ◽  
Web Spider ◽  
Orb Web ◽  
Cannibalism Rate ◽  
Orb Web Spiders

Costs of inbreeding can lead to total reproductive failure and inbreeding avoidance is, therefore, common. In classical sex roles with no paternal care, the selective pressure to avoid inbreeding is mostly on the female, which carries the higher costs. In some orb-web spiders, this situation is very different because females are polyandrous and males are monogynous or at most bigynous. Additionally, females of many entelegyne orb weavers are thought to bias paternity post-copulatorily towards a desired mate. This increases the selective pressure on males to adjust their investment in a mating with regard to the compatibility to a female. Here, we examine whether genetic relatedness influences mating behaviour in the orb-web spider Argiope bruennichi . We mated either a sibling or a non-sibling male to a female in single copulation trials and compared copulation duration, cannibalism rate and female fecundity. Our experiment revealed that males prolonged their copulation duration and were cannibalized more frequently when mating with a non-sibling female. Males mating with a sibling female were more likely to escape cannibalism by copulating briefly, thus presumably increasing their chances of re-mating with a more compatible female. This suggests that males can adaptively adjust their investment relating to the compatibility of a female.

scholarly journals A unique mating pattern of Panorpodes kuandianensis (Mecoptera: Panorpodidae)

2017 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Tong ◽  
Lu Jiang ◽  
Bao-Zhen Hua
Keyword(s):  
Mating Behavior ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Sperm Transfer ◽  
Nuptial Gift ◽  
Mating Pattern ◽  
End To End ◽  
Mating Behaviors ◽  
First Time

Sexually reproductive insects exhibit diverse mating behaviors. However, the mating pattern remains unknown for Panorpodes of Panorpodidae to date. In this study, we investigated the mating behavior and copulatory mechanism of the short-faced scorpionfly Panorpodes kuandianensis Zhong, Zhang and Hua, 2011 for the first time. The results show that the male provides a salivary mass as a nuptial gift to the female and starts to copulate with the female in a V-shaped position, then changes to an end-to-end position by temporarily twisting the female abdominal segments VII−IX by 180°. During mating the basal processes and the basal teeth of the gonostyli and the hypandrium are used to obtain copulation and sustain the coupling of genitalia to secure successful sperm transfer. This unique mating pattern is greatly different from that of other Mecoptera reported and is likely evolved as an adaptation in the context of sexual conflict.

scholarly journals Direct and indirect bottom-up and top-down forces shape the abundance of the orb-web spider Argiope bruennichi

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 706-714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odile T. Bruggisser ◽  
Nadine Sandau ◽  
Gilles Blandenier ◽  
Yvonne Fabian ◽  
Patrik Kehrli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Web Spider ◽  
Orb Web
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