Cryptic Female Choice and Nuptial Prey Gifts in a Spider Model

Abstract

Reproduction is composed by a series of strategies performed by each sex in order to gain control over the outcome of the entire process. Males' attempts to fertilize the females may deal with a hidden factor: the cryptic female choice, which is the females' ability to control fertilization based on males' sexual performance. A particular kind of reproductive strategy adopted by males of several invertebrate orders involves the transfer of substances or materials during the courtship and/or copulation, also known as nuptial gifts (NG). At least nine spider families have representatives that rely on the transfer of NG, all of them classified as oral gifts. Given its appeal in broad areas of behavioral ecology, NG received great attention in terms of their role in determining the outcome of sexual interactions, but little effort was applied toward the integrate analysis of the entire courtship/copulatory process. NGs are obviously just a stage of the entire mate choice process, and the empirical data available supports the idea of sexual conflict. However, I defend that only an integrated analysis will allow us to understand if NG does play some role as a source of information for cryptic female choice, or if it still remains as a way that males found to mitigate the sexual conflict issues.