ArticleCommunications biology2022
Male mating strategies to counter sexual conflict in spiders.
Article in Communications biology, 2022. 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, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sperm Transfer Under Behavioral and Morphological Constraints in the Orb-Web Spider Genus Argiope.Integrative zoology · 2026Article
- The protamines of the spider Steatoda sp. provide an example of liquid-liquid phase separation chromatin transitions during spermiogenesis.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2024Article
- Nephila spider male aggregation: preference for optimal female size and web clustering.Integrative zoology · 2024Article
- The protamines of the noble false widow spiderbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Copulatory behaviour and genital mechanics suggest sperm allocation by a non-intromittent sclerite in a pholcid spider.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Male mating strategies to counter sexual conflict in spiders.Communications biology · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
When sexual conflict selects for reproductive strategies that only benefit one of the sexes, evolutionary arms races may ensue. Female sexual cannibalism is an extreme manifestation of sexual conflict. Here we test two male mating strategies aiming at countering sexual cannibalism in spiders. The "better charged palp" hypothesis predicts male selected use of the paired sexual organ (palp) containing more sperm for their first copulation. The "fast sperm transfer" hypothesis predicts accelerated insemination when cannibalism is high. Our comparative tests on five orbweb spider species with varying levels of female sexual cannibalism and sexual size dimorphism (SSD) reveal that males choose the palp with more sperm for the first copulation with cannibalistic females and that males transfer significantly more sperm if females are cannibalistic or when SSD is biased. By supporting the two hypotheses, these results provide credibility for male mating syndrome. They, however, open new questions, namely, how does a male differentiate sperm quantities between his palps? How does he perform palp choice after assessing his cannibalistic partner? By conducting follow-up experiments on Nephilengys malabarensis, we reveal that it is sperm volume detection, rather than left-right palp dominance, that plays prominently in male palp choice.
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