1
|
Ježová Z, Prokop P, Zvaríková M, Zvarík M. Unraveling the Significance of Draglines: Female Sexual Signalization in the Nursery-Web Spider, Pisaura mirabilis. INSECTS 2023; 14:765. [PMID: 37754733 PMCID: PMC10532251 DOI: 10.3390/insects14090765] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Revised: 09/06/2023] [Accepted: 09/11/2023] [Indexed: 09/28/2023]
Abstract
Chemical signals used by animals to attract the opposite sex are well known in insects, but heavily understudied in spiders. We investigated the role of chemical signals in female draglines in a gift-giving spider, Pisaura mirabilis, using combined data from behavioral tests and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). We also investigated whether the quality of sexual signalization is influenced by crucial factors, such as female spider ontogeny, nutritional status, and mating status. We found that draglines of adult (versus subadult) and hungry (versus fed) females stimulated male motivation to produce nuptial gift, and highly sexually excited males invested more silk in gift production than less sexually excited males. Unexpectedly, chemical signals of eggsac-carrying females were similarly sexually attractive to draglines of adult females not carrying eggsac. HPLC identified significant chemical differences in female draglines, but these differences did not always correspond to male behavior. The integration of behavioral and chemical approaches is required to better understand animal behavior in future research.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Zuzana Ježová
- Department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Ilkovičova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia; (Z.J.)
| | - Pavol Prokop
- Department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Ilkovičova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia; (Z.J.)
- Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská Cesta 9, 845 06 Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Martina Zvaríková
- Department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Ilkovičova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia; (Z.J.)
| | - Milan Zvarík
- Department of Nuclear Physics and Biophysics, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University, Mlynská Dolina F1, 842 48 Bratislava, Slovakia;
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Albo MJ, Pavón-Peláez C, Villar MM, Buzatto BA, Tomasco I. Stressful environments favor deceptive alternative mating tactics to become dominant. BMC Biol 2023; 21:162. [PMID: 37501205 PMCID: PMC10375696 DOI: 10.1186/s12915-023-01664-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2022] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 07/29/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Deceptive alternative mating tactics are commonly maintained at low frequencies within populations because males using them are less competitive and acquire lower fitness than those using dominant tactics. However, the successful invasion of a male deceptive tactic is plausible if deception carries no fitness cost to females. Among populations of the gift-giving spider Paratrechalea ornata, males very often offer females a deceptive worthless gift, rather than a nutritive gift. We tested the degree to which deceptive worthless gifts can occur in natural populations living under divergent environmental conditions (moderate and stressful). We examined the plasticity of morphological and behavioral traits and analyzed the fitness of females in relation to the gift type, also examining the paternity acquired by males offering either gift type. RESULTS We demonstrated that worthless gifts can become dominant under highly stressful environmental conditions (84-100%). Individuals in such environment reach smaller sizes than those in moderate conditions. We suggest that the size reduction probably favors low metabolic demands in both sexes and may reduce the costs associated with receiving deceptive worthless gifts for females. In contrast, males living under moderate conditions varied the use of the deceptive tactic (0-95%), and worthless gifts negatively influenced female fecundity. Furthermore, male size, rather than gift content, positively impacted paternity success in the moderate but not in the stressful environment. CONCLUSIONS Overall, this is the first empirical evidence that a reversible deceptive tactic can become dominant when the environment becomes harsh and mate choice becomes limited.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maria J Albo
- Sección Entomología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La República, Montevideo, Uruguay.
- Departamento de Ecología y Biología Evolutiva, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Montevideo, Uruguay.
- Programa de Desarrollo de las Ciencias Básicas (PEDECIBA), Universidad de La República, Montevideo, Uruguay.
| | - Camila Pavón-Peláez
- Sección Entomología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La República, Montevideo, Uruguay
- Programa de Desarrollo de las Ciencias Básicas (PEDECIBA), Universidad de La República, Montevideo, Uruguay
- Departamento de Ecología y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La República, Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Mauro Martínez Villar
- Sección Entomología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La República, Montevideo, Uruguay
- Programa de Desarrollo de las Ciencias Básicas (PEDECIBA), Universidad de La República, Montevideo, Uruguay
- Departamento de Ecología y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La República, Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Bruno A Buzatto
- Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
- Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Ivanna Tomasco
- Departamento de Ecología y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La República, Montevideo, Uruguay
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Pavón-Peláez C, Franco-Trecu V, Pandulli-Alonso I, Jones TM, Albo MJ. Beyond the prey: male spiders highly invest in silk when producing worthless gifts. PeerJ 2022; 10:e12757. [PMID: 35036108 PMCID: PMC8742539 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.12757] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2021] [Accepted: 12/16/2021] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
In the spider Paratrechalea ornata, males have two gift-giving mating tactics, offering either a nutritive (prey) or a worthless (prey leftovers) silk wrapped gift to females. Both gift types confer similar mating success and duration and afford males a higher success rate than when they offer no gift. If this lack of difference in the reproductive benefits is true, we would expect all males to offer a gift but some males to offer a worthless gift even if prey are available. To test this, we allowed 18 males to court multiple females over five consecutive trials. In each trial, a male was able to produce a nutritive gift (a live housefly) or a worthless gift (mealworm exuviae). We found that, in line with our predictions, 20% of the males produced worthless gifts even when they had the opportunity to produce a nutritive one. However, rather than worthless gifts being a cheap tactic, they were related to a higher investment in silk wrapping. This latter result was replicated for worthless gifts produced in both the presence and absence of a live prey item. We propose that variation in gift-giving tactics likely evolved initially as a conditional strategy related to prey availability and male condition in P. ornata. Selection may then have favoured silk wrapping as a trait involved in female attraction, leading worthless gift-giving to invade.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Camila Pavón-Peláez
- Programa de Desarrollo de las Ciencias Básicas (PEDECIBA), Universidad de la República, Uruguay,Departamento de Ecología y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Valentina Franco-Trecu
- Departamento de Ecología y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Irene Pandulli-Alonso
- Departamento de Ecología y Biología Evolutiva, Instittuto de investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Therésa M. Jones
- School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, 3010 Victoria, Australia
| | - Maria J. Albo
- Departamento de Ecología y Biología Evolutiva, Instittuto de investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Montevideo, Uruguay,Sección Entomología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Uruguay
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Pandulli‐Alonso I, Tomasco IH, Albo MJ. The handsome liar: Male spiders offering worthless gifts can benefit increasing mating duration. Ethology 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.13258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Irene Pandulli‐Alonso
- Departamento de Ecología y Biología Evolutiva Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable Montevideo Uruguay
| | - Ivanna H. Tomasco
- Departamento de Ecología y Evolución. Facultad de Ciencias Universidad de la República Montevideo Uruguay
| | - Maria J. Albo
- Departamento de Ecología y Biología Evolutiva Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable Montevideo Uruguay
- Departamento de Ecología y Evolución. Facultad de Ciencias Universidad de la República Montevideo Uruguay
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Martínez Villar M, Trillo MC, Albo MJ. Ineffective nuptial gifts suggest female emancipation from sensory exploitation. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-021-02994-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
|
6
|
Albo MJ, Franco-Trecu V, Wojciechowski FJ, Toft S, Bilde T. Maintenance of deceptive gifts in a natural spider population: ecological and demographic factors. Behav Ecol 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arz040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
AbstractAlternative mating tactics are expected to occur predominantly when mate competition is intense, resources are in short supply, or as a result of asymmetric power relationships between individuals. Males of the nuptial gift-giving spider Pisaura mirabilis use a prevailing tactic of offering a nutritive gift (insect prey) and a deceptive tactic of offering a worthless gift (consumed prey) to prospective mates. If the male’s tactic depends on precopulatory male–male competition, worthless gifts should occur primarily late in the season, when the operational sex ratio (OSR) becomes male-biased. If it depends on resource availability and/or postcopulatory sexual selection (sperm competition), worthless gifts should occur mostly early in the mating season, when prey availability is low and most females are unmated (i.e., postcopulatory sexual selection is weak). Nuptial gift construction correlated positively with prey availability and negatively with OSR, suggesting that males increase reproductive effort when resource and mate availability increase. We did not find evidence for body condition affecting male tactic use. Male size had a marked effect on the reproductive tactic employed. Males that matured early in the season were very small and employed mostly the nutritive gift tactic during their short life. Among the males that matured later and persisted through the season, relatively small males employed the worthless gift tactic whereas large males employed the nutritive gift tactic. We suggest that the existence of 2 distinct life-history strategies among males (early small and late large size) interacts with environmental and demographic conditions to maintain the deceptive tactic.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maria J Albo
- Departamento de Ecología y Biología Evolutiva, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Avenida Italia, Montevideo, Uruguay
- Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade, Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Valentina Franco-Trecu
- Departamento de Ecología y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá, Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Filip J Wojciechowski
- Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade, Aarhus C, Denmark
- Department of Human Evolutionary Ecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, ul. Umultowska Poznań, Poland
| | - Søren Toft
- Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade, Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Trine Bilde
- Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade, Aarhus C, Denmark
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Albo MJ, Macías-Hernández N, Bilde T, Toft S. Mutual benefit from exploitation of female foraging motivation may account for the early evolution of gifts in spiders. Anim Behav 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.05.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
|
8
|
Pandulli-Alonso I, Quaglia A, Albo MJ. Females of a gift-giving spider do not trade sex for food gifts: a consequence of male deception? BMC Evol Biol 2017; 17:112. [PMID: 28506206 PMCID: PMC5433081 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-017-0953-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2017] [Accepted: 04/12/2017] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Polyandry is commonly maintained by direct benefits in gift-giving species, so females may remate as an adaptive foraging strategy. However, the assumption of a direct benefit fades in mating systems where male gift-giving behaviour has evolved from offering nutritive to worthless (non-nutritive) items. In the spider Paratrechalea ornata, 70% of gifts in nature are worthless. We therefore predicted female receptivity to be independent of hunger in this species. We exposed poorly-fed and well-fed females to multiple males offering nutritive gifts and well-fed females to males offering worthless gifts. Results Though the treatments strongly affected fecundity, females of all groups had similar number of matings. This confirms that female receptivity is independent of their nutritional state, i.e. polyandry does not prevail as a foraging strategy. Conclusions In the spider Pisaura mirabilis, in which the majority (62%) of gifts in nature are nutritive, female receptivity depends on hunger. We therefore propose that the dependence of female receptivity on hunger state may have evolved in species with predominantly nutritive gifts but is absent in species with predominantly worthless gifts. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12862-017-0953-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Irene Pandulli-Alonso
- Laboratorio de Etología, Ecología y Evolución, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Avenida Italia, 3318, Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Agustín Quaglia
- Laboratorio de Arbovirus-Instituto de Virología "Dr. J. M. Vanella"-Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina
| | - Maria J Albo
- Laboratorio de Etología, Ecología y Evolución, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Avenida Italia, 3318, Montevideo, Uruguay.
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Macedo-Rego RC, Costa-Schmidt LE, Santos ESA, Machado G. Negative effects of prolonged dietary restriction on male mating effort: nuptial gifts as honest indicators of long-term male condition. Sci Rep 2016; 6:21846. [PMID: 26908253 PMCID: PMC4764815 DOI: 10.1038/srep21846] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2015] [Accepted: 01/29/2016] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The handicap principle proposes that sexual signals must be costly to be honest. Honesty may be maintained by the costs paid by honest signallers or by the potential costs of cheating. In the latter, handicaps should emerge as a consequence of specific biological constraints, such as life-history trade-offs. Nuptial prey-giving arthropods are good systems to investigate the honesty of sexual signals taking into account trade-offs between self-maintenance and mating effort. We experimentally evaluated if prolonged food shortage during early adulthood imposes long-term negative effects on gift construction by males of the spider Paratrechalea ornata. We also evaluated whether a burst of food availability improved body condition of poorly fed males, increasing their frequency of gift construction. Poorly fed males hardly constructed gifts, even after a marked increase in feeding rate, which clearly improved their body condition. Moreover, initially poorly fed males that latter received high food intake constructed lighter gifts than continuously well fed males. The long-term effects of prolonged dietary restriction on male propensity to construct a gift and on the size of this gift may increase the honesty of this sexually selected signal. From the female’s perspective the offer of a gift may bring information on male quality.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Renato C Macedo-Rego
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, trav. 14, n° 321, São Paulo, SP, 05508-090, Brazil.,LAGE do Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, trav. 14, n° 321, São Paulo, SP, 05508-090, Brazil
| | - Luiz Ernesto Costa-Schmidt
- LAGE do Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, trav. 14, n° 321, São Paulo, SP, 05508-090, Brazil.,Programa de Pós-graduação em Biologia, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Avenida Unisinos, 950, São Leopoldo, RS, 93022-000, Brazil.,Laboratorio de Biología Reproductiva y Evolución, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal (IDEA - CONICET), Avenida Vélez Sarsfield, 299, Córdoba Capital, CP: 5000, Argentina
| | - Eduardo S A Santos
- LAGE do Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, trav. 14, n° 321, São Paulo, SP, 05508-090, Brazil.,Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, trav. 14, n° 321, São Paulo, SP, 05508-090, Brazil
| | - Glauco Machado
- LAGE do Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, trav. 14, n° 321, São Paulo, SP, 05508-090, Brazil
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Lin TS, Zhang S, Liao CP, Hebets EA, Tso IM. A dual function of white coloration in a nocturnal spider Dolomedes raptor (Araneae: Pisauridae). Anim Behav 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
|
11
|
Albo MJ, Peretti AV. Worthless and Nutritive Nuptial Gifts: Mating Duration, Sperm Stored and Potential Female Decisions in Spiders. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0129453. [PMID: 26107397 PMCID: PMC4480359 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0129453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2013] [Accepted: 05/08/2015] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
In nuptial gift-giving species females sometimes select their potential mates based on the presence and size of the gift. But in some species, such as the Neotropical polyandrous spider Paratrechalea ornate male gifts vary in quality, from nutritive to worthless, and this male strategy can be in conflict with female nutritional benefits. In this species, males without gifts experience a reduction in mating success and duration, while males that offer worthless or genuine nutritive gifts mate with similar frequencies and durations. The female apparently controls the duration of copulation. Thus, there is scope for females to favour males offering gifts and further if these are nutritious, via post-copulatory processes. We first tested whether females differentially store sperm from males that offer the highest nutritional benefits by experimentally presenting females with males that offer either nutritive or worthless gifts (uninterrupted matings). Second, we carried out another set of experiments to examine whether females can select sperm based only on gift presence. This time we interrupted matings after the first pedipalp insertion, thus matching number of insertions and mating duration for males that: offered and did not offer gift. Our results showed that the amount of sperm stored is positive related to mating duration in all groups, except in matings with worthless gifts. Gift presence itself did not affect the sperm stored by females, while they store similar number of sperm in matings with males offering either nutritive or worthless gifts. We discuss whether females prefer males with gifts regardless, if content, because it represents an attractive and/or reliable signal. Or alternatively, they prefer nutritive nuptial gifts, as they are an important source of food supply and/or signal of male donor ability.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maria J. Albo
- Laboratorio de Etología, Ecología y Evolución, IIBCE, Montevideo, Uruguay
- * E-mail:
| | - Alfredo V. Peretti
- Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal, CONICET-, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Albo MJ, Melo-González V, Carballo M, Baldenegro F, Trillo MC, Costa FG. Evolution of worthless gifts is favoured by male condition and prey access in spiders. Anim Behav 2014. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.03.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
|