Male mating preference is associated with risk of pre-copulatory cannibalism in a socially polymorphic spider |
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Authors: | Jonathan N Pruitt Susan E Riechert |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1610, USA |
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Abstract: | We performed male attraction experiments and staged courtship sequences to test for non-random mating with respect to social
behavioral phenotype in the comb-footed spider, Anelosimus studiosus. While asocial behavior is the dominant phenotype in all A. studiosus populations examined to date, a social phenotype approaches a frequency of 15% in colder environments. We collected test
subjects from higher latitude polymorphic populations and scored all individuals as to their behavioral phenotype prior to
their use in these trials. Males of both phenotypes differentially approached and courted social females over asocial females
and no-spider controls. By offering males different numbers of females of one type vs. the other in subsequent trials, we
determined that the difference in attractiveness between the two phenotypes social/asocial is 1.5/1. Both the web produced
by a female and a female that has been removed from its web attract males. We suggest that the male attracting pheromone is
present on females and is also attached to silk threads. Staged encounters completed between males and females of the respective
phenotypes demonstrated that courting males suffer significantly less pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism with social females
than with asocial ones, and thus, female social tendency is phenotypically linked to sexual aggression. We propose that the
male preference for social females is adaptive because of the observed asymmetry in courtship success. |
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Keywords: | Anelosimus studiosus Sexual cannibalism Mate choice Behavioral syndrome Sexual conflict |
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