Sexual cannibalism increases male material investment in offspring: quantifying terminal reproductive effort in a praying mantis

Brown, William D.; Barry, Katherine L.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.0656

Cited by 17 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…First, males in a variety of non-cannibalistic taxa are known to provide nutritional resources that increase female fecundity [26], sometimes at a substantial cost to a male's future mating opportunities [27]. Second, males can invest limiting nutrients [28,29] or defensive compounds [30] in females rather than energy. Thus, it may be irrelevant that males in self-sacrificing species are substantially smaller than females.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Males Can Benefit from Sexual Cannibalism Facilitated by Self-Sacrifice

2016

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In a number of species, males are cannibalized by females after mating (reviewed in [1, 2]), and some males actually appear to facilitate their own cannibalism (reviewed in [3]). Such self-sacrifice can evolve if being eaten sufficiently enhances either fertilization success (mating effort) or offspring number or fitness (paternal effort). While there is some support for the mating-effort hypothesis, few studies have found support for paternal effort. We used two experiments to test the paternal-effort hypothesis in the dark fishing spider, Dolomedes tenebrosus. Males of this species provide themselves as a material contribution: they spontaneously die during copulation and are subsequently eaten by females. In support of the paternal-effort predictions, when females were allowed to consume their mating partner, we found large and significant increases in (1) the number, (2) the size, and (3) the survivorship of the offspring. Similar benefits were not seen when females were allowed to consume a cricket in lieu of a male, suggesting that it is the consumption of the male's body per se that is responsible for these fitness benefits. Together, our results suggest that D. tenebrosus males can benefit from self-sacrifice behavior through paternal effort. Such behavior may be particularly likely to evolve when high rates of postcopulatory cannibalism trap males into investing in their first mate instead of investing in acquiring additional matings and/or if strong first-male sperm precedence reduces the benefits of both investing in additional matings and paternity protection.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Males Can Benefit from Sexual Cannibalism Facilitated by Self-Sacrifice

2016

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“…Thus, fecundity benefits make it more likely for sexually cannibalistic mating systems to persist in nature. There is substantial evidence that sexual cannibalism increases lifetime fecundity for the female, and sometimes the male (Andrade, ; Brown & Barry, ). Often this is thought to occur through increased egg production owing to extra nutrients derived from the cannibalised male (Brown & Barry, ; Spence, Zimmermann, & Wojcicki, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is substantial evidence that sexual cannibalism increases lifetime fecundity for the female, and sometimes the male (Andrade, ; Brown & Barry, ). Often this is thought to occur through increased egg production owing to extra nutrients derived from the cannibalised male (Brown & Barry, ; Spence, Zimmermann, & Wojcicki, ). For example, female Pseudomantis albofimbriata that cannibalise males are known to increase their ootheca mass by up to 40% when compared to females that do not cannibalise (Barry et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the costs and benefits of sexual cannibalism for the individuals of a species have been thoroughly investigated (Barry et al., ; Brown & Barry, ; Newman & Elgar, ; Schneider & Elgar, ; Schwartz, Wagner, & Hebets, ), there are very few studies that attempt to address the population‐level consequences of sexual cannibalism. There are two main negative effects that sexual cannibalism may have on population ecology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sexual cannibalism and population viability

Fisher

Cornell

Holwell

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Some behaviours that typically increase fitness at the individual level may reduce population persistence, particularly in the face of environmental changes. Sexual cannibalism is an extreme mating behaviour which typically involves a male being devoured by the female immediately before, during or after copulation, and is widespread amongst predatory invertebrates. Although the individual‐level effects of sexual cannibalism are reasonably well understood, very little is known about the population‐level effects. We constructed both a mathematical model and an individual‐based model to predict how sexual cannibalism might affect population growth rate and extinction risk. We found that in the absence of any cannibalism‐derived fecundity benefit, sexual cannibalism is always detrimental to population growth rate and leads to a higher population extinction risk. Increasing the fecundity benefits of sexual cannibalism leads to a consistently higher population growth rate and likely a lower extinction risk. However, even if cannibalism‐derived fecundity benefits are large, very high rates of sexual cannibalism (>70%) can still drive the population to negative growth and potential extinction. Pre‐copulatory cannibalism was particularly damaging for population growth rates and was the main predictor of growth declining below the replacement rate. Surprisingly, post‐copulatory cannibalism had a largely positive effect on population growth rate when fecundity benefits were present. This study is the first to formally estimate the population‐level effects of sexual cannibalism. We highlight the detrimental effect sexual cannibalism may have on population viability if (1) cannibalism rates become high, and/or (2) cannibalism‐derived fecundity benefits become low. Decreased food availability could plausibly both increase the frequency of cannibalism, and reduce the fecundity benefit of cannibalism, suggesting that sexual cannibalism may increase the risk of population collapse in the face of environmental change.

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“…Sexual cannibalism is the predation of potential or actual mating partners in one sex (mostly male) by the other sex (female) during mating. As a result, females may gain nutritional benefit (Barry et al, 2008; Birkhead et al, 1988; Brown & Barry, 2016; Maxwell, 2000; Welke & Schneider, 2012), but males may suffer large fitness costs due to a loss of future mating opportunities. Thus, sexual cannibalism can be a strong agent of sexual conflict (Elgar, 1992; Elgar & Schneider, 2004; Schneider, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproductive phenology and female mating frequency of the praying mantidTenodera angustipennisin western Japan

Nagata

Nishino

Kuroda

et al. 2022

Ecological Entomology

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1. The timing and frequency of female mating are important determinants of male reproductive success. Elucidating reproductive phenology is crucial to understand the evolution of mating behaviour and mating systems.2. Mate encounter rate is a key variable for understanding the evolutionary consequences of sexual cannibalism. However, remarkably little is known about female mating frequency in wild populations in mantids, charismatic insects that exhibit sexual cannibalism. 3. The authors examined the reproductive phenology of a wild population of the sexually cannibalistic praying mantid Tenodera angustipennis, and paid special attention to female mating frequency. 4. Field surveys throughout two reproductive seasons were combined with survival model analysis to estimate the phenology of eclosion, adult sex ratio, female first mating, and oviposition, allowing quantification of time windows for reproductive maturation and female mating.5. Genetic paternity analysis using newly developed microsatellite markers revealed that females mated with two to six males on average before oviposition in the wild.6. The results provide a comprehensive record of the reproductive phenology and female mating frequency in a wild mantid population, and insight into the evolution of male mating behaviour under sperm competition and sexual cannibalism.

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Sexual cannibalism increases male material investment in offspring: quantifying terminal reproductive effort in a praying mantis

Cited by 17 publications

References 35 publications

Males Can Benefit from Sexual Cannibalism Facilitated by Self-Sacrifice

Males Can Benefit from Sexual Cannibalism Facilitated by Self-Sacrifice

Sexual cannibalism and population viability

Reproductive phenology and female mating frequency of the praying mantidTenodera angustipennisin western Japan

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