Limited mating opportunities and male monogamy: a field study of white widow spiders, Latrodectus pallidus (Theridiidae)

Segoli, Michal; Harari, Ally R.; Lubin, Yael

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.11.021

Cited by 39 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Thus, the intense sexual selection argued to lead to monogyny [1,2] may also have given rise to facultative polygyny in L. hasselti and L. geometricus. More broadly, this previously unrecognized alternative mating tactic may be common in other invertebrate taxa where males interact with immature females [15][16][17]. Although advantageous, the frequency of the immaturemating tactic in nature depends on the male's ability to identify immature females during a brief developmental window (electronic supplementary material, figure S1).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Copulation with immature females increases male fitness in cannibalistic widow spiders

et al. 2016

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Copulatory cannibalism of male ‘widow’ spiders (genus Latrodectus ) is a model example of the extreme effects of sexual selection, particularly in L. hasselti and L. geometricus where males typically facilitate cannibalism by females and mate only once. We show that these males can increase their reproductive success by copulating with final-instar, immature females after piercing the female's exoskeleton to access her newly developed sperm storage organs. Females retain sperm through their final moult and have similar fecundity to adult-mated females. This is an adaptive male tactic because immature mating increases insemination success relative to adult mating (which predicts higher paternity) and moreover, rarely ends in cannibalism, so males can mate again. Although successful only during a brief period before the female's final moult, males may employ this tactic when they associate with final-instar females in nature. Consistent with this, one-third of L. hasselti females collected as immatures in nature were already mated. Immature mating alters sexual selection on these otherwise monogynous males, and may explain male traits allowing facultative polygyny in Latrodectus . Since male cohabitation with immature females is common among invertebrates, immature mating may be a widespread, previously unrecognized mating tactic, particularly when unmated females are of high reproductive value.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite this risk, our data show that L. hasselti males successfully find and mate one-third of immature females in nature. Frequent reports of cohabitation of Latrodectus males with immature females [15,16] suggest the opportunity for immature mating may be common in the genus.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Copulation with immature females increases male fitness in cannibalistic widow spiders

et al. 2016

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“…Males may obtain great fitness rewards from copulating with their recently moulted virgin mates owing to the first male sperm priority pattern in this species (Austad 1984). Nevertheless, mate guarding is both time consuming (Komdeur 2001; Bel-Venner & Venner 2006; Segoli et al 2006) and energetically costly due to fierce fights between rival males (Plaistow et al 2003;Low 2006). Males should thus benefit from selecting their mates depending on their own competitive ability and the variation in mate quality (Burley 1977;Parker 1983;Huber 2005;Preston et al 2005), both of which are reflected by body size in the populations studied here.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unexpected male choosiness for mates in a spider

et al. 2007

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Sexual selection theory traditionally considers choosiness for mates to be negatively related to intra-sexual competition. Males were classically considered to be the competing, but not the choosy, sex. However, evidence of male choosiness is now accumulating. Male choosiness is expected to increase with an individual's competitive ability, and to decrease as intra-sexual competition increases. However, such predictions have never been tested in field conditions. Here, we explore male mate choice in a spider by studying size-assortative pairing in two natural sites that strongly differ in the level of male-male competition. Unexpectedly, our results demonstrate that mate choice shifts from opportunism to high selectivity as competition between males increases. Males experiencing weak competition did not exhibit size-related mating preferences. By contrast, when competition was intense we found strong sizeassortative pairing due to male choice: while larger, more competitive males preferentially paired with larger, more fecund females, smaller males chose smaller females. Thus, we show that mating preferences of males vary with their competitive ability. The distinct preferences exhibited by males of different sizes seem to be an adaptive response to the lower reproductive opportunities arising from increased competition between males.

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“…Widows are well known in popular culture because of their neurotoxic venom (Jelinek 1997;Ushkaryov et al 2004), the tendency of several species to thrive in anthropogenically disturbed habitats (Trubl et al 2012;Vetter et al 2012), and because of their lurid reputation for females that kill and consume courting males (D'Amour et al 1936). In reality, there is a wide range of mating systems in this genus (e.g., Breene and Sweet 1985;Forster 1992;Andrade 1996;Knoflach and van Harten 2002;Segev et al 2003;Segoli et al 2006), ranging from polygyny and polyandry to the most extreme examples of male monogyny enforced by polyandrous female cannibals (observed in two species to date : Forster 1992;Segoli et al 2008a). For example, in the Australian L. hasselti, males are monogynous and facilitate cannibalism by females (Forster 1992;Andrade 1996), but neither of these behaviors is found in the sister taxon L. katipo (Kavale 1986;Forster 1992).…”

Section: Comparative Context and Variationmentioning

confidence: 98%

Potential for CFC in Black Widows (Genus Latrodectus): Mechanisms and Social Context

Andrade

MacLeod

2015

Cryptic Female Choice in Arthropods

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Understanding the causes of variation in paternity is an important goal of research in sexual selection. While much progress has been made in understanding the dynamics of pre-copulatory mate choice and competition, post-copulatory processes that affect paternity are much less well understood. Distinguishing cryptic female choice (CFC, biases in paternity due to female postcopulatory preferences) from sperm competition (SC, competition among ejaculates for fertilization) and particularly from sexual antagonistic coevolution (SAC, intersexual conflict over mating frequency or fertilization) is at best challenging, and at worst, may be impossible. One way forward is to identify taxa in which comparative approaches, field studies, and detailed mechanistic study are all tractable, as these may allow the design of critical tests of distinguishing predictions of these intertwined hypotheses at different levels of analysis. Here, we focus on the widow spiders, the approximately 30 species in the genus Latrodectus, as a promising group for future work on CFC. Latrodectus spiders are distributed worldwide and show a fascinating range of mating systems set in variable ecological and social contexts. We outline how some of the aspects of Latrodectus natural history and biology may favor CFC rather than (or in addition to) pre-copulatory choice. Moreover, inter-and intraspecific variation in the benefits of CFC may provide the opportunity for comparative and intraspecific studies. We then identify likely mechanisms of CFC in this genus and end by providing suggestive evidence for CFC in a few of the species that have been studied in detail. Although there is no evidence for sperm selection in the Latrodectus to date, female behavior can lead to biases in paternity via changes in copulation frequency, duration, and remating as a function of male courtship effort. In addition, although firstmale sperm precedence mediated by the deposit of sperm plugs is common in this genus, females may be able to manipulate the success of this internal plug and

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Limited mating opportunities and male monogamy: a field study of white widow spiders, Latrodectus pallidus (Theridiidae)

Cited by 39 publications

References 31 publications

Copulation with immature females increases male fitness in cannibalistic widow spiders

Copulation with immature females increases male fitness in cannibalistic widow spiders

Unexpected male choosiness for mates in a spider

Potential for CFC in Black Widows (Genus Latrodectus): Mechanisms and Social Context

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