A paternity advantage for speedy males? Sperm precedence patterns and female re-mating frequencies in a sexually cannibalistic praying mantid

Abstract

Scramble competition polygyny is expected when females and/or resources are widely dispersed and not easily monopolized by males, or when there is an abundance of mates during an extremely restricted reproductive period. Additional factors such as first male sperm precedence or low female re-mating rate might further explain the propensity of males to engage in scramble competition. The sexually cannibalistic praying mantid Pseudomantis albofimbriata exhibits a polygynous mating system, where females exist in low-density populations and male competition manifests as the race to find females rather than as direct physical fighting. Here, we aim to determine whether there is a paternity advantage for the first-male to mate and/or a low frequency of female re-mating. First, we determined sperm precedence patterns in P. albofimbriata using the sterile male technique. Second, we tested the likelihood of female re-mating in P. albofimbriata by comparing the close-range approach behaviour and frequency of successful mating attempts for males when paired with virgin as opposed to recently mated females, and by comparing the frequency of long-distance male attraction between virgin and mated females. We found no paternity advantage for the first male to mate, rather a second male advantage. Although mated females were not rejected by males when approached from close-range, they were chemically unattractive to males searching from a distance. Since initial mate attraction in many praying mantids, including P. albofimbriata, is mediated via long-distance chemical communication, we believe the latter result is more ecologically relevant and therefore more important. These results suggest that the relatively low frequency of female re-mating observed in P. albofimbriata may be an additional factor driving scramble competition in this system.

Multiple Paternity within Field-Collected Egg Cases of the Praying MantidTenodera aridifolia

“…Recent research has examined sperm competition and relative paternity in sexually cannibalistic spiders (Elgar et al 2000(Elgar et al , 2003reviewed in Elgar and Schneider 2004;Snow and Andrade 2005;Prenter et al 2006;Nessler et al 2009;Schneider and Lesmono 2009;Barry et al 2010). Although these studies point to inßuences on relative paternity such as the timing of cannibalism, copulation duration, and breakage of male genitalia, they have been conÞned to laboratory conditions.…”

You Are What You Eat: Food Limitation Affects Reproductive Fitness in a Sexually Cannibalistic Praying Mantid

“…The effects of late development may not be as pertinent for males as for females because males do not have the reproductive time constraints associated with oogenesis and oviposition, however, delayed maturity might still have a significant effect, most notably on the ability to locate a female before other males [33,34] or on the number of virgin females available to mate with later in the season. In P. albofimbriata , mated females are no longer chemically attractive to males [23], so a lack of virgin females could mean a substantial decrease in reproductive success for food-limited males in nature. …”

“…That females use sexual cannibalism as a foraging strategy to increase fecundity [20,21] and are more likely to cannibalise when resources are scarce [18,20,21], provides further evidence that resource limitation is important in these insects. Male mantids are polygynous scramble competitors, selected for their ability to locate mates effectively [22,23] and perform in post-copulatory sperm competition [24,25]. Food limitation might, therefore, have a negative impact on various aspects of sperm production or on the size/body condition of males and their subsequent ability to locate potential mates or to continue mate searching over time.…”

“…Specifically, I was focused on (1) the effect of juvenile and adult feeding regime on the allocation of resources to female development and morphology, (2) the effect of juvenile feeding regime on the allocation of resources to male development and morphology (including the functionally significant antennae and wings) (3), the effect of juvenile and adult feeding regime on female reproductive fitness traits, and (4) the effect of juvenile feeding regime on male reproductive fitness traits. Males of this species are intense scramble competitors [23], so selection should favour those males that can quickly detect and mate with the best quality females [22]. Since previous studies of P. albofimbriata suggest that adult male size - which generally infers juvenile feeding - has little effect on the frequency of cannibalism [20], male mating success [20], proportion of paternity [23] or absolute sperm number transferred [25], I used only male mate location and mate choice ability as indictors of male reproductive fitness in this study.…”

“…Males of this species are intense scramble competitors [23], so selection should favour those males that can quickly detect and mate with the best quality females [22]. Since previous studies of P. albofimbriata suggest that adult male size - which generally infers juvenile feeding - has little effect on the frequency of cannibalism [20], male mating success [20], proportion of paternity [23] or absolute sperm number transferred [25], I used only male mate location and mate choice ability as indictors of male reproductive fitness in this study. For females, I used fecundity and chemical attractiveness as indicators of reproductive fitness.…”