Sperm allocation in relation to male traits, female size, and copulation behaviour in freshwater crayfish species

Rubolini, Diego; Galeotti, Paolo; Ferrari, Guglielmo; Spairani, Michele; Bernini, Franco; Fasola, Mauro

doi:10.1007/s00265-005-0158-9

Cited by 55 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…A similar unexpected result of our study is that chelar asymmetry has apparently no effect on mate choice by females. It was previously observed in other crayfish species that asymmetric chelae decrease the ability of males to secure females for copulation (Woodlock & Reynolds, 1988;Rubolini et al, 2006). On the contrary, in P. clarkii there is no evidence that asymmetry of chelae might compromise mating success.…”

Section: Mate Choice By Femalesmentioning

confidence: 72%

“…Villanelli & Gherardi, 1998;Gherardi et al, 2006). The only indirect evidence comes from Rubolini et al (2006), who showed the ability by male Au. italicus to adjust the quantity of sperm allocated as a function of the female size.…”

Section: Mate Choice By Malesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Crayfish were deemed 'mated' (and those in the other aquarium 'virgin') after males ceased to copulate (after 7 days of cohabitation with a different female per day) and females had received at least 25 ejaculates by six different males. The number of ejaculates was assessed by recording tail flips and body movements by males in the copulating position, following Rubolini et al (2006). These individuals were immediately used as targets in the experiment.…”

Section: Experiments 2: Msmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mutual mate choice in crayfish: large body size is selected by both sexes, virginity by males only

Aquiloni

Gherardi

2007

Journal of Zoology

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Mate choice is often assumed to be a prerogative of females because of their putatively larger reproductive investment than males. However, recent evidence suggests that spermatogenesis is far from being limitless and that males show a high selectivity towards their mates, thus maximizing their reproductive success. We investigated mutual mate choice in the crayfish Procambarus clarkii through two experiments. The first experiment explored the effects of body size, chelar size and chelar symmetry and social status of a potential partner. In the second experiment, we asked whether this species can discriminate between partners of the same body size but with different mating status. We used a binary choice test paradigm, in which two 'targets' with opposing characteristics were simultaneously presented to a test animal, the 'chooser'. The results showed that P. clarkii males are more selective than expected. Similar to the other sex, they were significantly attracted by targets with large body sizes, but not by individuals with larger and symmetric chelae or with a dominant status. An inter-sexual difference was found in the second experiment, in which only males seemed to select virgin potential mates. The several adaptive explanations for these preferences, still under debate, are finally discussed.

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Section: Mate Choice By Femalesmentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Mate Choice By Malesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Experiments 2: Msmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mutual mate choice in crayfish: large body size is selected by both sexes, virginity by males only

Aquiloni

Gherardi

2007

Journal of Zoology

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“…Pitnick and Markow 1994;Gage and Barnard 1996;Wedell and Cook 1999;Rondeau and Sainte-Marie 2001;Wedell et al 2002;Pizzari et al 2003). In recent years, interest in the topic of sperm allocation has increased considerably also in crustaceans (blue crab, Jivoff 1997; Caribbean spiny lobster, MacDiarmid and Butler 1999; snow crab, Rondeau and Sainte-Marie 2001; American lobster, Gosselin et al 2003; common rock crab Hemigrapsus sexdentatus, Brockerhoff and McLay 2005; freshwater crayfish, Rubolini et al 2006; the stone crab, Sato and Goshima 2007a, c;coconut crab, Sato 2011). To maximize their reproductive success, males allocate their sperm reserves depending on various factors (Wedell et al 2002).…”

Section: -3 Skewed Sex Ratio Towards Females: Male Sperm Allocationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Large Male-Selective Harvesting on Reproduction: Illustration with Large Decapod Crustacean Resources

Sato¹

2012

Aqua-BioSci. Monogr. (ABSM)

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Keywordsbeen reported in many species of vertebrates and invertebrates (e.g. Bianchi et al. 2000;Branch and Odendaal 2003;Roy et al. 2003;Harvey et al. 2006).In a wide range of taxa, body size is one of the key determinants of fitness in both males and females (Andersson 1994). For example, body size is positively correlated with reproductive fitness (e.g. mating success and fecundity). Mostly, larger males are stronger competitors for females (e.g. Hoefler 2007) or can provide more ejaculated sperm (e.g. Jivoff 1997), or better care for the offspring (e.g. Kolm 2002). In females, body size positively correlates with egg size (e.g. Einum and Fleming 1999), number of spawning (e.g. Claramunt et al. 2007), number of eggs spawned (e.g. Evans et al. 2008), or quality of larvae (e.g. Berkeley et al. 2004). Therefore, mate choice is non-random in the majority of animal species (Real 1990), and males and females prefer larger mates mutually (e.g. Sandvik et al. 2000;Herdman et al. 2004; Aquiloni and Gherardi AbstractTo signal a need for caution for present large male-selective harvesting practices, negative impacts of the large male-selective harvesting on reproductive output in large decapod crustacean resources are introduced with emphasis on my own work with spiny king crab Paralithodes brevipes, coconut crab Birgus latro, and the stone crab Hapalogaster dentata. The large male-selective harvestings for several large decapod crustaceans have changed their population demographic structure by decreasing mean male size and skewing sex ratio towards females. By several field and laboratory experiments, the change of population demographic structure was anticipated to decrease female reproductive success in the resources (i.e. reproductive output of the harvested populations) through a decrease in sperm availability for females because of male size-dependent reproductive potentials and slow sperm recovery rate. Furthermore, reproductive output and stability of the large male-selective harvested resources were also anticipated to decline by a decrease in mate availability for females, attributing to combination of female mate choice for larger males with negative effects of female delayed mating and/or maternal influences. To establish the optimal management practices, the details of the mating system and reproductive ecology of each targeted species should be investigated.

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“…Furthermore, under a female-biased sex ratio, males of the snow crab C. opilio allocate less ejaculate (Rondeau & Sainte-Marie 2001), like other decapods such as crayfish (Rubolini et al 2006) or king crabs (Sato & Goshima 2007). This indicates that the prudent use of ejaculate reserves seems to be generalized in decapods.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Ejaculate allocation in Brachyura: What do males of Metacarcinus edwardsii respond to?

Pardo¹,

Riveros²,

Chaparro³

et al. 2018

Aquat. Biol.

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In polygynous species, the sperm economy hypothesis predicts that males can adjust the amount of their ejaculate during copulation in response to (1) individual traits of females according to potential female fecundity, (2) future mating opportunities, and (3) risk of sperm competition. We tested this hypothesis in the crab Metacarcinus edwardsii by performing laboratory mating experiments to compare the response of males (sperm number and ejaculate weight delivered) in 3 sex-ratio scenarios: (1) equal, 1 female:1 male; (2) male-biased, 1 female:2 males; and (3) female-biased, 2 females:1 male. First, we determined if any variable, or an interaction between variables, could explain the variation in sperm or ejaculate amount delivered under an equal sex ratio. Second, we contrasted the ejaculate allocation among different sex-ratio scenarios. Under an equal sex ratio, males of M. edwardsii did not adjust their ejaculate allocation in response to any female trait. Male size was positively related to ejaculate delivery, indicating that the pair of vasa deferentia has ejaculate reserves that scale exponentially with male size. However, larger males delivered disproportionally more seminal fluid than sperm. Under a female-biased sex ratio, males did not show plasticity in their ejaculate allocation, but they increased their ejaculate investment (23%) per female under a male-biased sex ratio (i.e. risk of sperm competition). M. edwardsii presented a low level of ejaculate allocation, responding only when competitive males were perceived. In species with trans-molt sperm retention and long ejaculate storage, the risk of sperm competition is present all the time; therefore, males do not economize ejaculate even if more receptive females are available.

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Sperm allocation in relation to male traits, female size, and copulation behaviour in freshwater crayfish species

Cited by 55 publications

References 59 publications

Mutual mate choice in crayfish: large body size is selected by both sexes, virginity by males only

Mutual mate choice in crayfish: large body size is selected by both sexes, virginity by males only

Impacts of Large Male-Selective Harvesting on Reproduction: Illustration with Large Decapod Crustacean Resources

Ejaculate allocation in Brachyura: What do males of Metacarcinus edwardsii respond to?

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