Do Female Spiders Select Heavier Males for the Genes for Behavioral Aggressiveness They Offer Their Offspring?

Riechert, S. E.; Johns, P. M.

doi:10.1554/02-677

Cited by 10 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…However, our second personality measure, aggressiveness, which is highly correlated with boldness [24], was not associated with any of the three measures of participation in prey capture. Perhaps aggressiveness towards predators, as our 'response to prod stimulus' indicates [37], does not correlate with aggressiveness towards prey in this species. Third, body size was positively associated with emerging from the nest but not with attacking, whereas dispersal was positively correlated with tendency to attack but not with being the first to emerge (table 2).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Individual personalities shape task differentiation in a social spider

et al. 2013

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Deciphering the mechanisms involved in shaping social structure is key to a deeper understanding of the evolutionary processes leading to sociality. Individual specialization within groups can increase colony efficiency and consequently productivity. Here, we test the hypothesis that within-group variation in individual personalities (i.e. boldness and aggression) can shape task differentiation. The social spider Stegodyphus sarasinorum (Eresidae) showed task differentiation (significant unequal participation) in simulated prey capture events across 10-day behavioural assays in the field, independent of developmental stage (level of maturation), eliminating age polyethism. Participation in prey capture was positively associated with level of boldness but not with aggression. Body size positively correlated with being the first spider to emerge from the colony as a response to prey capture but not with being the first to attack, and dispersal distance from experimental colonies correlated with attacking but not with emerging. This suggests that different behavioural responses to prey capture result from a complex set of individual characteristics. Boldness and aggression correlated positively, but neither was associated with body size, developmental stage or dispersal distance. Hence, we show that personalities shape task differentiation in a social spider independent of age and maturation. Our results suggest that personality measures obtained in solitary, standardized laboratory settings can be reliable predictors of behaviour in a social context in the field. Given the wealth of organisms that show consistent individual behavioural differences, animal personality could play a role in social organization in a diversity of animals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Individual personalities shape task differentiation in a social spider

et al. 2013

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“…Sexual selection for large male size occurs both as interand intrasexual selection. In Agelenopsis aperta (Agelenidae), females prefer heavier males for the genes for behavioural aggressiveness they offer their offspring (Riechert & Johns, 2003). In Neriene litigiosa, females rely 'blindly ' on the outcome of inter-male fights to determine their major sire (Watson, 1990.…”

Section: Sexual Size Dimorphismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual selection research on spiders: progress and biases

2005

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The renaissance of interest in sexual selection during the last decades has fuelled an extraordinary increase of scientific papers on the subject in spiders. Research has focused both on the process of sexual selection itself, for example on the signals and various modalities involved, and on the patterns, that is the outcome of mate choice and competition depending on certain parameters. Sexual selection has most clearly been demonstrated in cases involving visual and acoustical signals but most spiders are myopic and mute, relying rather on vibrations, chemical and tactile stimuli. This review argues that research has been biased towards modalities that are relatively easily accessible to the human observer. Circumstantial and comparative evidence indicates that sexual selection working via substrate-borne vibrations and tactile as well as chemical stimuli may be common and widespread in spiders. Pattern-oriented research has focused on several phenomena for which spiders offer excellent model objects, like sexual size dimorphism, nuptial feeding, sexual cannibalism, and sperm competition. The accumulating evidence argues for a highly complex set of explanations for seemingly uniform patterns like size dimorphism and sexual cannibalism. Sexual selection appears involved as well as natural selection and mechanisms that are adaptive in other contexts only. Sperm competition has resulted in a plethora of morphological and behavioural adaptations, and simplistic models like those linking reproductive morphology with behaviour and sperm priority patterns in a straightforward way are being replaced by complex models involving an array of parameters. Male mating costs are increasingly being documented in spiders, and sexual selection by male mate choice is discussed as a potential result. Research on sexual selection in spiders has come a long way since Darwin, whose spider examples are reanalysed in the context of contemporary knowledge, but the same biases and methodological constraints have persisted almost unchanged through the current boom of research.

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“…On the other hand, aggression has been widely admitted as a SSC in a variety of animals (e.g. birds, Wheatherhead 1990; fish, Bergman & Moore 2003; insects, Kemp & Wiklund 2001; spiders, Riechert & Johns 2003). In insects it has been suggested a link between male–male competition and immunity via melanine production (Koskimäki et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Territorial behaviour and immunity are mediated by juvenile hormone: the physiological basis of honest signalling?

et al. 2009

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Summary 1.The role of the juvenile hormone (JH) as a potential mediator in the trade-off between malemale competition and immune response has not been tested, but its study could reveal a potential mechanism that mediates resource allocation between these two traits. 2. Controlling for body size, we tested whether males of the territorial damselfly Calopteryx virgo administrated with methoprene acid, an analog of the JH (JHa), compared to control males, increased their aggression and occupation time on territories but decreased their phenoloxidase (PO) activity (a key enzyme used during immune response after a bacterial challenge). We found an increase in aggression in JHa treated males compared to control males, but the opposite was found for PO activity. 3. As fat load and muscle mass are also important traits during a contest, we tested whether JHa males compared to control males showed more fat and muscle content 2 h after JHa administration. Our results did not show a significant difference between both male groups, suggesting that JHa only increased aggression. 4. These results and a review of other published articles, which have documented an effect of JH on a variety of functions in insects, suggest that JH may be a target of sexual selection: this hormone not only promotes the expression of secondary sexual characters but also seems condition-dependent and so its titers may indicate male condition.

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Do Female Spiders Select Heavier Males for the Genes for Behavioral Aggressiveness They Offer Their Offspring?

Cited by 10 publications

References 90 publications

Individual personalities shape task differentiation in a social spider

Individual personalities shape task differentiation in a social spider

Sexual selection research on spiders: progress and biases

Territorial behaviour and immunity are mediated by juvenile hormone: the physiological basis of honest signalling?

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