Resource heterogeneity interacts with courtship rate to influence mating success in the wolf spider Schizocosa floridana

Temporal patterns of nutrition dependence in secondary sexual traits and their varying impacts on male mating success

“…Note that the sample size for LL males was very small (N = 5, 2 copulating, 3 not copulating), potentially contributing to the nonsignificance of this result. However, despite sample size limitations, LL males showed a nearly significant predictive relationship between courtship rate and copulation success, a tendency that matches the findings of Rosenthal and Hebets (2012). For the variable-diet males (HL and LH), the shallow curves indicate no relationship between courtship rate and copulation success.…”

“…First, previous studies in related species of wolf spider have shown that subadult males placed on different diets show different phenotype expression as adults (Rosenthal & Hebets, 2012;Rundus, Sullivan-Beckers, Wilgers, & Hebets, 2011). Additionally, since juvenile diet affects maturation time (Rosenthal & Hebets, 2012;Rundus et al, 2011), restricting the juvenile diet duration enabled us to run all trials within a reasonable time frame. Individuals were placed into diet treatments 23 ± 4 days prior to maturation.…”

“…Given the lack of evidence of an effect of diet on copulation success (see Results), and given the findings of Rosenthal and Hebets (2012), where juvenile and adult diet were found to interact with courtship rate to influence copulation success, we assessed the possibility that diet might indirectly affect the attractiveness of the male sexual display. We did this using a nominal logistic regression model containing the independent variables of courtship rate, juvenile diet, adult diet and all two-and three-way interactions.…”

“…In terms of mating success, we predicted condition-dependent mating success. Additionally, given the previous evidence for the possibility of an interaction between diet and courtship rate (Rosenthal & Hebets, 2012), we predicted that courtship rate would be the strongest predictor of copulation success in all males except those experiencing a high juvenile/low adult food treatment.…”

“…Components of complex display can also vary in their temporal patterns of nutrition dependence, which can ultimately influence male mating success. Prior research using S. floridana demonstrated that male foreleg darkness was influenced by juvenile diet whereas adult body condition (measured as body mass/carapace width)was influenced by adult diet (Rosenthal & Hebets, 2012). Interestingly, in this species, diet was found to interact with courtship rate to affect copulation success; courtship rate was a strong predictor of copulation success for all males except those that switched from a high-quantity diet before maturation to a low-quantity diet after maturation (HL), suggesting that variability experienced by a male may have an impact on females' assessment of his display.…”