Nuptial gift-giving behaviour and male mating effort in the Neotropical spider Paratrechalea ornata (Trechaleidae)

Albo, María J.; Costa, Fernando Guilherme Perazzo

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.01.018

Cited by 46 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…This may reflect that gift wrapping is costly for males, so they delay investment in silk wrapping until the female is close. In accordance with this hypothesis, males of P. mirabilis and P. ornata carrying prey without silk usually start silk wrapping once they are confronted with a female (Bilde et al 2007;Albo and Costa 2010). Moreover, if males are initially rejected by females they perform additional wrapping bouts before repeated courtship and mating attempts (Bilde et al 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…Nuptial gifts are presented in the form of captured prey, regurgitation, glandular or salivary fluids, or specialized male body parts, which are donated to the females during courtship and mating (Thornhill 1976;Boggs 1995;Sakaluk 2000;Vahed 1998Vahed , 2007. In spiders, the nuptial gift-giving trait of Pisaura mirabilis (Pisauridae) has been studied extensively (Bristowe 1968;Austad and Thornhill 1986;Lang 1996;Drengsgaard and Toft 1999;Stålhandske 2001Stålhandske , 2002Bruun et al 2003;Prokop 2006;Bilde et al 2006;2007;Andersen et al 2008;Hansen et al 2008;Prokop and Maxwell 2009), and a similar behaviour has been studied in Paratrechalea ornata (Trechaleidae) (Costa-Schmidt et al 2008;Albo et al 2009;Albo and Costa 2010). In P. mirabilis, females exert strong preference for a nuptial gift.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Condition dependence of male nuptial gift construction in the spider Pisaura mirabilis (Pisauridae)

Albo

Toft

Bilde

2011

J Ethol

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Pisaura mirabilis males offer a prey wrapped in silk as a nuptial gift that functions as a male mating effort. If nuptial gift construction is costly, males in poor feeding condition would invest less in this behaviour than males in good condition. We investigated frequencies and characteristics of gift construction in males under different sexual stimuli and different feeding conditions. We analysed gift construction behaviours of 17 males exposed sequentially to three treatments: female silk (S), female silk plus female (SF) and no female cues (control; C). The same individuals were first tested when in good feeding condition (young/satiated) and subsequently in poor feeding condition (old/starved). A separate group in good feeding condition controlling for effects of male age was also tested (old/satiated). Presence of female cues (S and SF) elicited much stronger gift construction response in males compared with the control group. Both groups of satiated males constructed nuptial gifts more frequently than starved males, spending more time on gift construction and using more silk. Our findings show that poor feeding condition affects pre-copulatory gift construction behaviour. Nuptial gift construction may be an honest indicator of male condition and therefore a target of female choice.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Condition dependence of male nuptial gift construction in the spider Pisaura mirabilis (Pisauridae)

Albo

Toft

Bilde

2011

J Ethol

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“…With a gift in his chelicerae he seemed to use the legs to direct the female's body and chelicerae towards the gift. A seemingly aggressive attack thus ended in gift acceptance and mating rather than in cannibalism, a behaviour also described from another nuptial gift-giving spider [32]. The role of male front legs in avoiding sexual cannibalism has been proposed and/or confirmed for several groups of spiders [33,34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The shield effect: nuptial gifts protect males against pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism

Toft

Albo

2016

Biol. Lett.

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Several not mutually exclusive functions have been ascribed to nuptial gifts across different taxa. Although the idea that a nuptial prey gift may protect the male from pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism is attractive, it has previously been considered of no importance based on indirect evidence and rejected by experimental tests. We reinvestigated whether nuptial gifts may function as a shield against female attacks during mating encounters in the spider Pisaura mirabilis and whether female hunger influences the likelihood of cannibalistic attacks. The results showed that pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism was enhanced when males courted without a gift and this was independent of female hunger. We propose that the nuptial gift trait has evolved partly as a counteradaptation to female aggression in this spider species.

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“…Nuptial feeding has also been documented in the spider species Pisaura mirabilis (Stålhandske, 2001(Stålhandske, , 2002 and Paratrechalea ornata (Albo & Costa, 2010). The gifts in these systems are composed of prey items wrapped in silk; males present these gifts to females to increase their chance of mating, but the gifts have no effect on female fecundity or size of eggs, so it appears that these gifts likewise function as sensory traps (Albo & Costa, 2010;Stålhandske, 2001Stålhandske, , 2002. While we have some knowledge of the biology of nuptial gifts in spiders, when it comes to the arachnid order Opiliones, commonly known as harvestmen, nuptial gifts remain entirely unexplored territory.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…It has been hypothesized that the spermatophylax in this cricket acts as a sensory trap through the use of free amino acids, which have been shown to have a phagostimulatory effect in insects (Calatayud et al, 2002) and allow the male to transfer sperm for longer periods of time (Warwick et al, 2009). Nuptial feeding has also been documented in the spider species Pisaura mirabilis (Stålhandske, 2001(Stålhandske, , 2002 and Paratrechalea ornata (Albo & Costa, 2010). The gifts in these systems are composed of prey items wrapped in silk; males present these gifts to females to increase their chance of mating, but the gifts have no effect on female fecundity or size of eggs, so it appears that these gifts likewise function as sensory traps (Albo & Costa, 2010;Stålhandske, 2001Stålhandske, , 2002.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nuptial gift chemistry reveals convergent evolution correlated with antagonism in mating systems of harvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones)

Kahn

Cao

Burns

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Nuptial gifts are material donations given from male to female before or during copulation and are subject to sexual selection in a wide variety of taxa. The harvestman genus Leiobunum has emerged as a model system for understanding the evolution of reproductive morphology and behavior, as transitions between solicitous and antagonistic modes of courtship have occurred multiple times within the lineage and are correlated with convergence in genital morphology. We analyzed the free amino acid content of nuptial gift secretions from five species of Leiobunum using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Multivariate analysis of the free amino acid profiles revealed that, rather than clustering based on phylogenetic relationships, nuptial gift chemical composition was better predicted by genital morphology and behavior, suggesting that convergent evolution has acted on the chemical composition of the nuptial gift. In addition, we found that, species with solicitous courtship produce gifts consisting of a 19% larger proportion of essential amino acids as compared to those with more antagonistic courtship interactions. This work represents the first comparative study of nuptial gift chemistry within a phylogenetic framework in any animal group and as such contributes to our understanding of the evolution of reproductive diversity and the participant role of nuptial gift chemistry in mating system transitions.

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Nuptial gift-giving behaviour and male mating effort in the Neotropical spider Paratrechalea ornata (Trechaleidae)

Cited by 46 publications

References 30 publications

Condition dependence of male nuptial gift construction in the spider Pisaura mirabilis (Pisauridae)

Condition dependence of male nuptial gift construction in the spider Pisaura mirabilis (Pisauridae)

The shield effect: nuptial gifts protect males against pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism

Nuptial gift chemistry reveals convergent evolution correlated with antagonism in mating systems of harvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones)

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