Preference for male traits in female wolf spiders varies with the choice of available males, female age and reproductive state

Diet influences mate choice selectivity in adult female wolf spiders

“…Although our results showed a pattern in this direction, we found no statistical difference in age between females that mated with high-versus low-diet males (see Results). More importantly, however, recent research on S. ocreata (a brushlegged species similar to the brush-legged males used in this study) showed that female choosiness decreases, not increases, with age (Uetz & Norton, 2007). Using the videoplayback technique, Uetz & Norton (2007) found that females show the strongest selectivity of male secondary sexual traits (brush-size in this case) between 15 and 21 days post maturation, with selectivity subsequently declining after 3 weeks postmaturity.…”

“…Furthermore, male mate choice has never been documented in any Schizocosa species, while multiple studies have documented examples of female choice (e.g. Hebets, 2003;Hebets, 2005;Hebets et al, 2006;Hebets and Vink, 2007;Uetz and Norton, 2007; reviewed in Uetz & Roberts, 2002).…”

“…The genus encompasses approximately 23 described species in North America and harbors tremendous variation both among and within species with respect to male secondary sexual traits and behaviors as well as female mate choice (Stratton, 2005). Because of their abundance and diversity, considerable research has focused on the evolution of male secondary sexual traits and female choice among various Schizocosa species (Hebets, 2003;Hebets, 2005;Stratton, 2005;Hebets et al, 2006;Hebets and Vink, 2007;Uetz and Norton, 2007; reviewed in Uetz & Roberts, 2002). Despite the plethora of studies focusing on Schizocosa, however, there is only one study to date that has examined the influence of diet on life history and secondary sexual traits.…”

Multimodal courtship efficacy of Schizocosa retrorsa wolf spiders: implications of an additional signal modality

“…Although female age only varied by a day between HD and LD females, age has been shown to influence female receptivity in S. ocreata (Uetz and Norton 2007), and thus, we included it in our analyses. We found no influence of female diet, signaling environment, or female age on the likelihood of copulation (whole model test: χ 2 = 10.6, df = 8, P = 0.225) or on which male (HD vs. LD) achieved the copulation (whole model test: N = 25, χ 2 = 8.83, df = 8, P = 0.356; Figure 1B).…”

Enigmatic ornamentation eases male reliance on courtship performance for mating success

“…While early Schizocosa studies focused on the relationship between ornamentation and female choice (McClintock and Uetz, 1996;Scheffer et al, 1996;Hebets and Uetz, 2000;Uetz and Roberts, 2002;Hebets et al, 2006;Uetz and Norton, 2007), more recent studies have highlighted the importance of these active displays, as courtship rate has been shown to influence male mating success across multiple species of wolf spider (Kotiaho et al, 1998a;Parri et al, 2002;Rypstra et al, 2003;Delaney et al, 2007;Gibson and Uetz, 2008;Lomborg and Toft, 2009;Shamble et al, 2009;Rundus et al, 2010Rundus et al, , 2011. Female Schizocosa are considered mostly monandrous (Norton & Uetz 2005), and previous work has documented strong female mate choice across species (e.g.…”