Sexual cannibalism is associated with female behavioural type, hunger state and increased hatching success

Berning, Aric W.; Gadd, Ryan D. H.; Sweeney, Kayla; MacDonald, Leigh; Eng, Robin Y.Y.; Hess, Zachary L.; Pruitt, Jonathan N.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.06.030

Cited by 35 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…We assessed individuals' boldness as their latency to resume movement following an aversive stimulus, which is a commonly used metric in spiders [47,48] and other arthropods [49,50]. Individual spiders were taken from their home containers and placed in the centre of a circular open-topped arena.…”

Section: (C) Boldness Assaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Achilles' heel hypothesis: misinformed keystone individuals impair collective learning and reduce group success

et al. 2016

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Many animal societies rely on highly influential keystone individuals for proper functioning. When information quality is important for group success, such keystone individuals have the potential to diminish group performance if they possess inaccurate information. Here, we test whether information quality (accurate or inaccurate) influences collective outcomes when keystone individuals are the first to acquire it. We trained keystone or generic individuals to attack or avoid novel stimuli and implanted these trained individuals within groups of naive colony-mates. We subsequently tracked how quickly groups learned about their environment in situations that matched (accurate information) or mismatched (inaccurate information) the training of the trained individual. We found that colonies with just one accurately informed individual were quicker to learn to attack a novel prey stimulus than colonies with no informed individuals. However, this effect was no more pronounced when the informed individual was a keystone individual. In contrast, keystones with inaccurate information had larger effects than generic individuals with identical information: groups containing keystones with inaccurate information took longer to learn to attack/avoid prey/predator stimuli and gained less weight than groups harbouring generic individuals with identical information. Our results convey that misinformed keystone individuals can become points of vulnerability for their societies.

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Section: (C) Boldness Assaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Achilles' heel hypothesis: misinformed keystone individuals impair collective learning and reduce group success

et al. 2016

Self Cite

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“…Nevertheless, a male may constitute a substantial meal for a female, which may increase her survival and future reproductive prospects (Moya-Laraño et al, 2003). The risk of cannibalism for a courting male varies with the state and the personality of a female (Rabaneda-Bueno et al, 2008;Berning et al, 2012) as well as with the relative size differences between the sexes (Johnson, 2005;Wilder and Rypstra, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dangerous mating systems: Signal complexity, signal content and neural capacity in spiders

Herberstein

Wignall

Hebets

et al. 2014

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

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“…Roggenbuck et al 2011;Berning et al 2012;Kralj-Fišer et al 2013, 2016RabanedaBueno et al 2014). According to the final model, Pre-SC in L. fasciiventris can be explained by female hunger, female age and sexual size dimorphism.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The 'adaptive foraging hypothesis' (AFH; Newman and Elgar 1991) posits that females benefit from consuming males, obtaining energy and nutrients which enhance their body condition (Moya-Laraño et al 2003a, 2003bBarry et al 2008) and subsequently their fecundity (Birkhead et al 1988;Johnson 2001Johnson , 2005Rabaneda-Bueno et al 2008;Berning et al 2012;Welke and Schneider 2012;Pruitt et al 2014). An economic model associated to the AFH (Newman and Elgar 1991) explains the probability of SC depending on the trade-off between the female chances of mating and foraging.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding regime, adult age and sexual size dimorphism as determinants of pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism in virgin wolf spiders

Gavín-Centol

Kralj‐Fišer

Mas

et al. 2016

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism (Pre-SC), where females attack and consume courting males, is considered an extreme case of sexual conflict. Different ultimate causes underlying this phenomenon have been proposed for more than a century and still remain unclear. The main objective of this research was to test the 'adaptive foraging hypothesis' in females of the non-burrowing wolf spider Lycosa fasciiventris. We exposed virgin adult females to either rich or poor diet treatments (differing in prey quality and availability) and offered them males at different adult female ages (a proxy of mate availability during adulthood). The analysis of correlative data served to evaluate other hypotheses/predictions. In order to test the 'mate choice hypothesis' and the 'sexual size dimorphism hypothesis', we tested how male absolute and relative (to the female) body size, respectively, affected the probability of Pre-SC. Finally, we asked if the female body size predicts the rate of Pre-SC as proposed by the 'aggressive spillover hypothesis'. Females from the poor diet treatment and females that were offered a mate shortly after reaching maturity more likely engaged in Pre-SC than females from the rich diet treatment and females that were deprived of males for longer periods. While females more likely cannibalized courting males of relatively or absolutely smaller body size, female absolute body size did not predict Pre-SC. Thus, our results support the 'adaptive foraging hypothesis', the 'mate choice hypothesis' and the 'sexual size dimorphism hypothesis' and failed to find support for one of the predictions of the 'aggressive spillover hypothesis'. Significance statementPre-copulatory sexual cannibalism, where females kill and devour courting males, may be costly for both sexes raising questions about its adaptive aspects and evolution. We used wolf spider Lycosa fasciiventris to test several existing hypotheses aiming to explain the phenomenon. Pre-copulatory cannibalism in virgin females was predicted by their food availability during adulthood, age at first male encounter and the relative body size of the courting male. Females more likely engaged in pre-copulatory cannibalism if they were poorly fed, young at first male encounter and relatively larger than their courting males. Thus, our data may simultaneously support the 'adaptive foraging', the 'sexual size dimorphism' and the 'mate choice' hypotheses as the explanations for precopulatory cannibalism occurrences in L. fasciiventris.

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Sexual cannibalism is associated with female behavioural type, hunger state and increased hatching success

Cited by 35 publications

References 38 publications

The Achilles' heel hypothesis: misinformed keystone individuals impair collective learning and reduce group success

The Achilles' heel hypothesis: misinformed keystone individuals impair collective learning and reduce group success

Dangerous mating systems: Signal complexity, signal content and neural capacity in spiders

Feeding regime, adult age and sexual size dimorphism as determinants of pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism in virgin wolf spiders

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