Context‐ and State‐Dependent Male Mate Choice in a Sexually Cannibalistic Spider
Context‐ and State‐Dependent Male Mate Choice in a Sexually Cannibalistic Spider
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DOI：
10.1111/eth.12466
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发表时间：
2016
期刊：
影响因子：
1.7
通讯作者：
J. Schneider;Stefanie M. Zimmer;Anna L. Gatz;K. Sauerland
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
J. Schneider;Stefanie M. Zimmer;Anna L. Gatz;K. Sauerland
雄性的高交配投资可能有利于雄性择偶的选择，特别是在雌性质量不同的情况下。终端投资策略构成了最大的交配努力，并且在包括金蛛属在内的几种蜘蛛类群中在没有父本投资的情况下独立进化。为了测试上述情况下的雄性择偶偏好，我们使用了性食人蜘蛛 A. bruennichi。我们在二元选择测试中改变了雄性状态（交配状态和成熟后年龄）以及竞争环境，并量化了不同状态和发育阶段的雌性之间的雄性择偶决策。我们发现，无论雄性交配状态如何，处女对交配雌性的整体适应性偏好。此外，我们证明，老年男性更关注女性生育力相关的特征，而不是交配状态。在第二组实验中，我们让雄性在处女和亚成年雌性之间进行选择，并改变竞争环境，这对雄性的决定没有影响。奇怪的是，只有在排除测试前成熟<3天的雌性后，对处女成年雌性的偏好才明显。对雄性的重复测试支持了这样的假设：雄性无法区分刚成熟的处女雌性和亚成年雌性。我们的结果表明，雄性蜘蛛根据从雌性丝束收集的信息来执行配偶选择，并将自己的状态纳入交配决策中。
High male mating investment may favor selection on male mate choice particularly if females vary in quality. Terminal investment strategies constitute a maximal mating effort and have evolved independently in the absence of paternal investment in several spider taxa including the genus Argiope. To test for male mate preferences in the above context, we used the sexually cannibalistic spider A. bruennichi. We varied male state (mating status and post-maturation age) as well as the competitive context and quantified male mate choice decisions between females of different states and developmental stages in binary choice tests. We found an overall adaptive preference for the virgin against the mated female regardless of male mating state. Furthermore, we demonstrated that older males paid more attention to female fecundity-related traits than to mating status. In a second set of experiments, we offered males a choice between a virgin and a subadult female and varied the competitive context which had no effect on male decisions. Curiously, a preference for the virgin adult female was only apparent after exclusion of females that matured <3 d prior to the test. Repeated tests of males supported the hypothesis that males do not distinguish between a freshly matured virgin female and a subadult female. Our results show that male spiders execute mate choice based on information collected from female silk strands and that they integrate their own state into mating decisions.