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Effects of social information on life history and mating tactics of males in the orb‐web spider Argiope bruennichi
Informed mating decisions are often based on social cues providing information about prospective mating opportunities. Social information early in life can trigger developmental modifications and influence later mating decisions. A high adaptive value of such adjustments is particularly obvious in s...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5756857/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29321876 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3672 |
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author | Cory, Anna‐Lena Schneider, Jutta M. |
author_facet | Cory, Anna‐Lena Schneider, Jutta M. |
author_sort | Cory, Anna‐Lena |
collection | PubMed |
description | Informed mating decisions are often based on social cues providing information about prospective mating opportunities. Social information early in life can trigger developmental modifications and influence later mating decisions. A high adaptive value of such adjustments is particularly obvious in systems where potential mating rates are extremely limited and have to be carried out in a short time window. Males of the sexually cannibalistic spider Argiope bruennichi can achieve maximally two copulations which they can use for one (monogyny) or two females (bigyny). The choice between these male mating tactics should rely on female availability that males might assess through volatile sex pheromones emitted by virgin females. We predict that in response to those female cues, males of A. bruennichi should mature earlier and at a smaller body size and favor a bigynous mating tactic in comparison with controls. We sampled spiders from two areas close to the Southern and Northern species range to account for differences in mate quality and seasonality. In a fully factorial design, half of the subadult males from both areas obtained silk cues of females, while the other half remained without female exposure. Adult males were subjected to no‐choice mating tests and could either monopolize the female or leave her (bigyny). We found that Southern males matured later and at a larger size than Northern males. Regardless of their origin, males also shortened the subadult stage in response to female cues, which, however, had no effects on male body mass. Contrary to our prediction, the frequencies of mating tactics were unaffected by the treatment. We conclude that while social cues during late development elicit adaptive life history adjustments, they are less important for the adjustment of mating decisions. We suggest that male tactics mostly rely on local information at the time of mate search. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5756857 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-57568572018-01-10 Effects of social information on life history and mating tactics of males in the orb‐web spider Argiope bruennichi Cory, Anna‐Lena Schneider, Jutta M. Ecol Evol Original Research Informed mating decisions are often based on social cues providing information about prospective mating opportunities. Social information early in life can trigger developmental modifications and influence later mating decisions. A high adaptive value of such adjustments is particularly obvious in systems where potential mating rates are extremely limited and have to be carried out in a short time window. Males of the sexually cannibalistic spider Argiope bruennichi can achieve maximally two copulations which they can use for one (monogyny) or two females (bigyny). The choice between these male mating tactics should rely on female availability that males might assess through volatile sex pheromones emitted by virgin females. We predict that in response to those female cues, males of A. bruennichi should mature earlier and at a smaller body size and favor a bigynous mating tactic in comparison with controls. We sampled spiders from two areas close to the Southern and Northern species range to account for differences in mate quality and seasonality. In a fully factorial design, half of the subadult males from both areas obtained silk cues of females, while the other half remained without female exposure. Adult males were subjected to no‐choice mating tests and could either monopolize the female or leave her (bigyny). We found that Southern males matured later and at a larger size than Northern males. Regardless of their origin, males also shortened the subadult stage in response to female cues, which, however, had no effects on male body mass. Contrary to our prediction, the frequencies of mating tactics were unaffected by the treatment. We conclude that while social cues during late development elicit adaptive life history adjustments, they are less important for the adjustment of mating decisions. We suggest that male tactics mostly rely on local information at the time of mate search. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2017-11-28 /pmc/articles/PMC5756857/ /pubmed/29321876 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3672 Text en © 2017 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Cory, Anna‐Lena Schneider, Jutta M. Effects of social information on life history and mating tactics of males in the orb‐web spider Argiope bruennichi |
title | Effects of social information on life history and mating tactics of males in the orb‐web spider Argiope bruennichi
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title_full | Effects of social information on life history and mating tactics of males in the orb‐web spider Argiope bruennichi
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title_fullStr | Effects of social information on life history and mating tactics of males in the orb‐web spider Argiope bruennichi
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title_full_unstemmed | Effects of social information on life history and mating tactics of males in the orb‐web spider Argiope bruennichi
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title_short | Effects of social information on life history and mating tactics of males in the orb‐web spider Argiope bruennichi
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title_sort | effects of social information on life history and mating tactics of males in the orb‐web spider argiope bruennichi |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5756857/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29321876 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3672 |
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