The effect of male mating history on paternal investment, fecundity and female remating in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus

Abstract

1. In many organisms, males provide nutrients to females via ejaculates that can influence female fecundity, longevity and mating behaviour. The effect of male mating history on male ejaculate size, female fecundity, female longevity and female remating behaviour in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus was determined. 2. The quantity of ejaculate passed to females declined dramatically with successive matings. Despite the decline, a male’s ability to fertilize a female fully did not appear to decline substantially until his fourth mating. 3. When females multiply mated with males of a particular mated status, the pattern of egg production was cyclic, with egg production increasing after mating. Females multiply mated to virgins had higher fecundity than females mated to non‐virgins, and females mated to twice‐mated males had disproportionately increased egg production late in their life. 4. Females that mated to multiple virgins, and consequently laid more eggs, experienced greater mortality than females mated only once or mated to non‐virgins, suggesting that egg production is costly, and rather than ameliorating these costs, male ejaculates may increase them by allowing or stimulating females to lay more eggs. 5. Females mating with non‐virgin males remated more readily than did females mated to virgins. Females given food supplements were less likely to remate than females that were nutritionally stressed, suggesting that females remate in part to obtain additional nutrients.

Mate choice and reproductive success of two morphs of the seven spotted ladybird, Coccinella septempunctata (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)

“…Similar reasons for the preference for virgin over non virgins mates have been previously discussed in terms of decline in nutritional gain by females when mated with non virgins rather than virgin males (Jennions & Petrie, 1997;Savalli & Fox, 1999).…”

“…Non-random mating is a common phenomenon in insects, with mate choice dependent on a number of factors such as morphology (Majerus et al, 1982a, b;Wang, 2002), age (Hansen & Price, 1995;Kokko & Lindstrom, 1996) and/or mating status (Sakaluk & Ivy, 1999;Savalli & Fox, 1999;Sakaluk et al, 2002). Although sexual activity per se has received less attention in ladybirds, the phenomenon of non-random mating or mate choice has been studied, in polymorphic species, which are convenient experimental models (Hodek & Ceryngier, 2000).…”

Negative phenotypic and genetic associations between copulation duration and longevity in male seed beetles

“…Part of this substantial effect of copulation duration on male longevity may be due to the fact that in our population males do not feed or drink as adults, but provide females with a substantial ejaculate that can be up to 10% of body mass (Paukku and Kotiaho, 2005). This means that males are losing both energy and water in their ejaculate, as suggested by the dramatic decline in ejaculate size with successive matings (Savalli and Fox, 1999). It is unclear however, if males that copulate for longer transfer larger ejaculates to females.…”

“…These findings are therefore consistent with a standard assumption of life-history models-investment in reproduction trades-off with longevity (Roff, 2002)-but if and how this trade-off varies across environments (for example, Czesak and Fox, 2003) remains to be investigated. In addition, how further copulations influence this trade-off also needs to be assessed, but male investment is greatest in their first copulation (Savalli and Fox, 1999), which is why we focused on this here. Previous phenotypic findings in this species suggested that mating has a negative effect on male survival (Paukku and Kotiaho, 2005).…”

Polygyny in the olive fly—effects on male and female fitness

“…These mating effects are determined mainly by attributes of the male ejaculates, which may vary according to male mating history (Avila et al 2011). Females mating with an already-mated male can incur fitness costs, in terms of reduced egg fertility and fecundity, shorter lifespan, or prolonged duration of copulation (Savalli and Fox 1999;Hughes et al 2000;Lauwers and Dyck 2006;Kant et al 2012). Thus, when able to exercise Communicated by N. Wedell choice, females should prefer to mate with males who maximize their fitness.…”