Fitness consequences of prolonged copulation in the bowl and doily spider

Suter, Robert B.; Parkhill, V.S.

doi:10.1007/bf00171104

Cited by 36 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…With mated females, males copulated twice only if mating very soon after those of the first male, otherwise they copulated only once. A similar pattern of reduced or zero sperm transfer to mated females was found in Frontinella pyramitela (Austad, 1982;Suter & Parkhill, 1990). Some evidence for sperm limitation applies in both species.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

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Sperm competition games: the risk model can generate higher sperm allocation to virgin females

Ball

Parker

2006

J of Evolutionary Biology

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We examine the risk model in sperm competition games for cases where female fertility increases significantly with sperm numbers (sperm limitation). Without sperm competition, sperm allocation increases with sperm limitation. We define ‘average risk’ as the probability q that females in the population mate twice, and ‘perceived risk’ as the information males gain about the sperm competition probability with individual females. If males obtain no information from individual females, sperm numbers increase with q unless sperm limitation is high and one of the two competing ejaculates is strongly disfavoured. If males can distinguish between virgin and mated females, greater sperm allocation to virgins is favoured by high sperm limitation, high q, and by the second male's ejaculate being disfavoured. With high sperm limitation, sperm allocation to virgins increases and to mated females decreases with q at high q levels. With perfect information about female mating pattern, sperm allocation (i) to virgins that will mate again exceeds that to mated females and to virgins that will mate only once, (ii) to virgins that mate only once exceeds that for mated females if q is high and there is high second male disadvantage and (iii) to each type of female can decrease with q if sperm limitation is high, although the average allocation increases at least across low q levels. In general, higher sperm allocation to virgins is favoured by: strong disadvantage to the second ejaculate, high sperm limitation, high average risk and increased information (perceived risk). These conditions may apply in a few species, especially spiders.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

“…High first male precedence (Austad, 1982) Female is sperm limited if has only one copulation (Suter & Parkhill, 1990) Sperm transferred to mated females only if mating occurs less than 24 h after the first mating. Male detects female's virginity signal through courtship and pseudo-copulation (Suter, 1990) Nephila clavipes (Araneidae)…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sperm competition games: the risk model can generate higher sperm allocation to virgin females

Ball

Parker

2006

J of Evolutionary Biology

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“…It seems obvious that the function of a prolonged copulation in general cannot be explained by prolonged sperm transfer only (Eberhard 1985;Suter & Parkhill 1990). During long copulations, apparent risks are accepted, which should favor brief mating (e. g. increased danger from predators or interruption by another male or by the female before sperm transfer is completed; Eberhard 1996).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Copulation duration may correlate with the amount of transferred sperm (Engqvist & Sauer 2003) and/or with fertilization success (Andres & Rivera 2000) but Schäfer & Uhl (2002) showed that longer copulations do not indicate higher fertilization rates in their study. The prolonged copulation duration in I. lannaianum could be explained by sperm competition hypotheses such as sperm precedence (Suter & Parkhill 1990;Elgar 1998) and/or by hypotheses of sexual selection by cryptic female choice (the male could initiate processes in the female during copulation which increase his chances of siring her offspring; Eberhard 1985Eberhard , 1996. The prolonged copulation could also serve as mate guarding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Copulatory Behavior and Web of Indicoblemma Lannaianum From Thailand (Arachnida, Araneae, Tetrablemmidae)

Burger¹,

Jacob

Kropf

2006

Journal of Arachnology

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ABSTRACT. The present study reports for the first time on the behavior prior to, during and after the copulation of a member of the haplogyne spider family, Tetrablemmidae and describes the web of this species. Prior to copulation, male and female of Indicoblemma lannaianum from Thailand sometimes avoided each other or the female scared the male away, apparently by vigorous vibrations of her body. When first copulations were initiated, they lasted from 1.21 to 3.8 h with an average of 2.25 Ϯ 0.71 h (n ϭ 17). Some females accepted a second male for mating 3-9 days after first mating. There was no significant difference between the duration of first and second copulations but significantly more trials were needed to induce the second copulations. In the copulatory position, the male was inverted and faced in the same direction as the female. He seized the female's opisthosoma with apophyses on his chelicerae which fit into grooves on a female's ventral plate in this way building a locking mechanism during copulation. The pedipalps were inserted alternately. The web of I. lannaianum consisted of a longish narrow sheet, which was made of many short threads forming a zigzag pattern and additional long oblique threads overdrawing the sheet and functioning as signal threads.

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“…In many animal groups, including spiders, the duration of copulation may show great inter-as well as intra-specific variation indicating that mating may serve other functions than a mere transfer of sperm necessary for fertilisation of the females' eggs (Jackson 1980;Suter and Parkhill 1990;reviews in Eberhard 1996;Elgar 1995Elgar , 1998. Though several factors including body size, predation risk and sexual cannibalism may influence copulation duration in spiders (Elgar 1995), the functions most often implied to explain extensive copulation durations is maximisation of the male's success in sperm competition (Parker 1970) or cryptic female choice (Eberhard 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mating duration and sperm precedence in the spider Linyphia triangularis

Weldingh

Toft

Larsen

2010

J Ethol

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In many animal species, mating behaviour is highly ritualised, which may allow us to relate some of its consequences, e.g. male paternity and female receptivity, to the progression of phases in the mating sequence; at the same time, ritualisation raises the question of to what extent the partners, especially the males, are able to influence the outcome of mating for their own benefit. We studied the linyphiid spider Linyphia triangularis in which mating follows a strict sequence during which the male inducts two droplets of sperm and transfers them to the female. We performed sperm competition experiments (sterile-male technique) including four treatments, in which the copulation of the first male was interrupted at prescribed phases of the mating sequence, while the second male was allowed a complete mating. Second males spent a shorter time than first males on the behaviours prior to sperm transfer, but the amount of sperm (2 droplets) and the time spent in sperm transfer were independent of the females' mating status. The proportion of females accepting the second male depended on the mating duration of the first male, i.e. whether the first male had transferred one or two sperm droplets. After a complete first mating, most females accepted no further males. A last-male sperm precedence was apparent if only half of the first sperm droplet had been transferred by the first male, but this switched to a first male precedence if one full sperm droplet had been transferred. Thus, even in the face of sperm competition, it is sufficient for the first male to transfer one sperm droplet. The second sperm droplet and the extended copulatory courtship associated with its transfer may serve to induce a lack of receptivity in the female, but the males seem unable to enhance their reproductive success through variable copulatory tactics.

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Fitness consequences of prolonged copulation in the bowl and doily spider

Cited by 36 publications

References 22 publications

Sperm competition games: the risk model can generate higher sperm allocation to virgin females

Sperm competition games: the risk model can generate higher sperm allocation to virgin females

Copulatory Behavior and Web of Indicoblemma Lannaianum From Thailand (Arachnida, Araneae, Tetrablemmidae)

Mating duration and sperm precedence in the spider Linyphia triangularis

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