Emasculation to plug up females:: the significance of pedipalp damage in Nephila fenestrata
Emasculation to plug up females:: the significance of pedipalp damage in Nephila fenestrata
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DOI：
10.1093/beheco/arj037
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发表时间：
2006-05-01
影响因子：
2.4
通讯作者：
Schneider, JM
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fromhage, L;Schneider, JM
在精子竞争的背景下，雌性的多次交配选择了雄性的适应性，以最大限度地提高受精成功率。虽然雄性交配策略通常反映了当前和未来繁殖之间的权衡，但在雄性最大交配次数非常少的系统中，这种权衡在很大程度上被消除了。选择可能倾向于极端的父权保护机制，这相当于在一次交配中最大的投资。在一些节肢动物类群中，雄性在交配时折断了部分交配器官，因此经常有人认为，残缺的雄性可以确保它们的父权。然而，这种机制很少得到直接证实。在这里，我们研究了金球蜘蛛Nephila fenestrata，它有一个交配系统，有潜在的同类相食，一夫多妻制的雌性，而雄性在与一只雌性交配后往往是功能性不育的。我们的研究表明，这个物种的雄性确实可以通过用交配器官的碎片堵塞雌性的生殖器开口来保护它们的父权。
Female multiple mating selects for male adaptations that maximize fertilization success in a context of sperm competition. While male mating strategies usually reflect a trade-off between present and future reproduction, this trade-off is largely removed in systems where the maximum number of matings for males is very small. Selection may then favor extreme mechanisms of paternity protection that amount to a maximal investment in a single mating. Males in several arthropod taxa break off parts of their copulatory organs during mating, and it has frequently been suggested that mutilated males can thus secure their paternity. Nevertheless, such a mechanism has rarely been confirmed directly. Here we study the golden orb spider Nephila fenestrata, which has a mating system with potentially cannibalistic, polyandrous females, and males that are often functionally sterile after mating with one female only. We show that males in this species can indeed protect their paternity by obstructing the female's genital openings with fragments of their copulatory organs.