ArticleScientific reports2017
Neutral fitness outcomes contradict inferences of sexual 'coercion' derived from male's damaging mating tactic in a widow spider.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Top-Down Coercive Mechanisms and the Major Transitions in Evolution.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025Review
- Does female control and male mating system predict courtship investment and mating outcomes? A comparative study in five widow spider species (genus Latrodectus) tested under similar laboratory conditions.BMC ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Pre-copulatory choices drive post-copulatory decisions: mechanisms of female control shift across different life stages.BMC ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Functional morphology of immature mating in a widow spider.Frontiers in zoology · 2021Article
- Immature mating as a tactic of polygynous male western widow spiders.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2020Article
- Risky business: males choose more receptive adults over safer subadults in a cannibalistic spider.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
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Abstract
Sexual conflict over mating frequency has driven the evolution of morphological and behavioural traits across taxa. Interactions may be termed 'coercive' and assumed to arise from conflict when male mating behaviours cause physical injury to females and females appear to resist injurious matings.However, coercion per se occurs only if the behaviour reduces female fitness; and such outcomes are rarely measured. Here we show that a damaging mating tactic, apparently adaptive for males, is not coercive for females. Adult male Latrodectus spiders mate with immature females after tearing the exoskeleton covering the female's recently-developed reproductive tract, which can cause haemolymph bleeding. We show that, relative to pairings with adult females, males use reduced courtship displays when approaching immature females, which in some cases respond with elevated deterrent behavioural responses. Nevertheless, we found no reproductive cost for immature-mated females in terms of longevity, fertility or fecundity. Moreover, most immature-mated females did not produce sex pheromones as adults, so did not seek additional matings. Thus, despite the appearance of conflict there is no evidence that immature-mating is coercive. These results show it is critical to measure fitness outcomes, in addition to behavioural responses, to test for coercion.
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