Challenging monogamy in a spider with nontraditional sexual behavior
Abstract Each species and sex can develop different reproductive strategies to optimize their fitness while assigning reproductive effort. Allocosa senex is a sex-role reversed spider whose males construct long burrows in the sand. They wait for wandering females to approach, assess their sexual par...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2022-04-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-09777-7 |
| _version_ | 1811272519150206976 |
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| author | Fedra Bollatti Catalina Simian Alfredo V. Peretti Anita Aisenberg |
| author_facet | Fedra Bollatti Catalina Simian Alfredo V. Peretti Anita Aisenberg |
| author_sort | Fedra Bollatti |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Each species and sex can develop different reproductive strategies to optimize their fitness while assigning reproductive effort. Allocosa senex is a sex-role reversed spider whose males construct long burrows in the sand. They wait for wandering females to approach, assess their sexual partners and donate their constructions to females after copulation. Females stay in the burrow and lay their egg-sac. When offspring are ready for dispersion, females leave the burrow and gain access to new mating opportunities. Males are choosy during mate courtship, preferring to mate with virgin females over copulated ones, which can even be cannibalized if males reject them. This situation turns new mating opportunities dangerous for copulated females. We wondered whether a copulated female inside the previous mate's burrow responds to courtship from a new male and if this new male can copulate, avoiding burrow construction costs. We also explored whether courtship and copulation behaviors during the first sexual encounter affected the probability of occurrence of a second copulation. For that purposes we exposed copulated females inside male burrows to new males (non-donor males). Males could locate and court females inside the previous male's burrow, and females accepted a second copulation. Hence, A. senex females are not monogamous as was expected but increase their reproductive success by copulating with non-donor males. Also, males can develop opportunistic tactics, suggesting a more dynamic mating system for this sex-role reversed spider than assumed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T22:41:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ab1c75d724844a7e8251a5707d8f72e0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T22:41:47Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-ab1c75d724844a7e8251a5707d8f72e02022-12-22T03:13:42ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222022-04-011211910.1038/s41598-022-09777-7Challenging monogamy in a spider with nontraditional sexual behaviorFedra Bollatti0Catalina Simian1Alfredo V. Peretti2Anita Aisenberg3Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Departamento de Diversidad Biológica y Ecología, Universidad Nacional de CórdobaFacultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Departamento de Diversidad Biológica y Ecología, Universidad Nacional de CórdobaFacultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Departamento de Diversidad Biológica y Ecología, Universidad Nacional de CórdobaDepartamento de Ecología y Biología Evolutiva, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente EstableAbstract Each species and sex can develop different reproductive strategies to optimize their fitness while assigning reproductive effort. Allocosa senex is a sex-role reversed spider whose males construct long burrows in the sand. They wait for wandering females to approach, assess their sexual partners and donate their constructions to females after copulation. Females stay in the burrow and lay their egg-sac. When offspring are ready for dispersion, females leave the burrow and gain access to new mating opportunities. Males are choosy during mate courtship, preferring to mate with virgin females over copulated ones, which can even be cannibalized if males reject them. This situation turns new mating opportunities dangerous for copulated females. We wondered whether a copulated female inside the previous mate's burrow responds to courtship from a new male and if this new male can copulate, avoiding burrow construction costs. We also explored whether courtship and copulation behaviors during the first sexual encounter affected the probability of occurrence of a second copulation. For that purposes we exposed copulated females inside male burrows to new males (non-donor males). Males could locate and court females inside the previous male's burrow, and females accepted a second copulation. Hence, A. senex females are not monogamous as was expected but increase their reproductive success by copulating with non-donor males. Also, males can develop opportunistic tactics, suggesting a more dynamic mating system for this sex-role reversed spider than assumed.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-09777-7 |
| spellingShingle | Fedra Bollatti Catalina Simian Alfredo V. Peretti Anita Aisenberg Challenging monogamy in a spider with nontraditional sexual behavior Scientific Reports |
| title | Challenging monogamy in a spider with nontraditional sexual behavior |
| title_full | Challenging monogamy in a spider with nontraditional sexual behavior |
| title_fullStr | Challenging monogamy in a spider with nontraditional sexual behavior |
| title_full_unstemmed | Challenging monogamy in a spider with nontraditional sexual behavior |
| title_short | Challenging monogamy in a spider with nontraditional sexual behavior |
| title_sort | challenging monogamy in a spider with nontraditional sexual behavior |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-09777-7 |
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