The Natural Selection of Sexual Cannibalism

Buskirk, Ruth E.; Frohlich, Cliff; Ross, Kenneth G.

doi:10.1086/284227

Cited by 118 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…it occurred in all males sampled). Male selfsacrifice during copulation is seen as a form of terminal reproductive investment, and is expected to evolve when the benefits of this investment outweigh the cost of foregoing future mating opportunities (Buskirk et al 1984;Johns & Maxwell 1997). Males may benefit for two reasons.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous male death during copulation in an orb-weaving spider

Foellmer

Fairbairn

2003

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

108

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Males of some cannibalistic species of spiders and insects appear to sacrifice themselves by allowing the female to eat them, and the adaptive significance of such drastic terminal reproductive investment has recently been demonstrated for a spider. Typically, the female has to kill the male, but it has been suggested that males of some species in the cannibalistic orb-weaving spider genus Argiope may die in copula without female 'collaboration'. Here, we provide the first experimental evidence to our knowledge of programmed sudden death after onset of copulation in males of the spider Argiope aurantia. Our observations reveal that males invariably die during the insertion of their second pedipalp, regardless of whether they mate with newly moulted, defenceless females or with older mature females that often attack them. We determined experimentally that the death of males is triggered immediately upon insertion of the second palp, when males become unresponsive, and heartbeat ceases within minutes of insertion. We discuss the possible adaptive significance of programmed death during copulation, and argue that male death has evolved in a context other than sexual cannibalism.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous male death during copulation in an orb-weaving spider

Foellmer

Fairbairn

2003

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

108

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“…The evolution of monogyny in L. hasselti has been explained conventionally (Buskirk et al 1984) by a combination of reproductive benefits and high mortality risk for males during mate search (Andrade 1996(Andrade , 2003Andrade and Banta 2002). Thus, if the chance of encountering more than one female in a lifetime is small, a male may maximize his reproductive success by investing all of his resources in the first female he encounters (Buskirk et al 1984).…”

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confidence: 99%

Faithful Without Care: The Evolution of Monogyny

2005

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Abstract. The traditional paradigm of male polygamy and female monogamy has been replaced by the recognition that both sexes may typically mate with several partners. As a consequence, much attention has focused on the evolution of polyandry, while the evolutionary significance of monogyny (male monogamy) remains poorly understood. Monogyny, a taxonomically widespread mating system that includes dramatic examples of male self-sacrifice, is predicted when the benefits of paternal investment exceed those of searching for additional mates. However, monogyny also occurs in animals lacking paternal investment, instead representing a form of paternity protection. It has been suggested that such mating systems are expected where the costs of mate search for males are high. However, this argument fails to recognize that if there is a low probability of a male finding a mate, then there may be a high probability that he will not need to defend his paternity. Using a mathematical model, we show that monogyny as a means of increasing paternity is favored when the sex ratio is male biased, but not necessarily by high search costs. The importance of a male-biased sex ratio for the evolution of monogyny is supported by various empirical studies.

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“…Male sacrifice may evolve if the chance of encountering more than one female in a lifetime is small and the consumption of the male by the female operates as parental investment [21] that increases the female's reproductive output [14]. In spiders where sexual cannibalism occurs, the paired pedipalps, which are the organs of sperm transfer, regularly become damaged as a result of copulation, such that each can be used only once, and thus strictly limiting mating frequency [6][7][8][9][10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In spiders where sexual cannibalism occurs, the paired pedipalps, which are the organs of sperm transfer, regularly become damaged as a result of copulation, such that each can be used only once, and thus strictly limiting mating frequency [6][7][8][9][10]. Buskirk et al [14] developed a model which predicts that male complicity in sexual cannibalism will evolve if the number of additional offspring produced as a result of sexual cannibalism exceeds the number of additional offspring the male could sire if he avoided cannibalism and searched for additional mates [22]. Male sacrifice may also evolve as a means of increasing paternity when the sex ratio is male biased and thus males risk sperm competition despite low individual male mating frequencies [23,24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Brown

Barry

2016

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Models of the evolution of sexual cannibalism argue that males may offset the cost of cannibalism if components of the male body are directly allocated to the eggs that they fertilize. We tested this idea in the praying mantid Tenodera sinensis. Males and females were fed differently radiolabelled crickets and allowed to mate. Half of the pairs progressed to sexual cannibalism and we prevented cannibalism in the other half. We assess the relative allocation of both male-derived somatic materials and ejaculate materials into the eggs and soma of the female. Our results show that male somatic investment contributes to production of offspring. The eggs and reproductive tissues of cannibalistic females contained significantly more male-derived amino acids than those of non-cannibalistic females, and there was an increase in the number of eggs produced subsequent to sexual cannibalism. Sexual cannibalism thus increases male material investment in offspring. We also show that males provide substantial investment via the ejaculate, with males passing about 25% of their radiolabelled amino acids to females via the ejaculate even in the absence of cannibalism.

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The Natural Selection of Sexual Cannibalism

Cited by 118 publications

References 30 publications

Spontaneous male death during copulation in an orb-weaving spider

Spontaneous male death during copulation in an orb-weaving spider

Faithful Without Care: The Evolution of Monogyny

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

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