Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on June 11, 2004
Behavioral Ecology 2004 15(5):785-792; doi:10.1093/beheco/arh080
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pattern of sperm transfer in redback spiders: implications for sperm competition and male sacrifice
Department of Life Sciences, University of Toronto at Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada
Address correspondence to M. C. B. Andrade. E-mail: mandrade{at}utsc.utoronto.ca.
Many sperm competition studies have identified copulation duration as an important predictor of paternity. This result is often interpreted as a sperm transfer effect—it is assumed that sperm transfer is limited by copulation duration. Here we test the assumption of duration-dependent sperm transfer in the Australian redback spider, Latrodectus hasselti, in which a correlation between copulation duration and paternity has been implicated in the evolution of a rare male self-sacrifice behavior. Male redbacks facilitate sexual cannibalism by females during copulation. Sexual cannibalism is apparently adaptive for redback males, in part because it results in longer copulations (25 versus 11 min.), and copulation duration is positively correlated with paternity. We assessed sperm transfer in normal copulations and in copulations that we terminated at 5, 10, or 20 min. Our results show that the paternity advantage of sexual cannibalism is not owing to time-dependent sperm transfer, as redback males transfer the majority of their sperm within the first 5 min of copulation. This suggests that the link between copulation duration and paternity may instead be owing to cryptic female choice or the transfer of nongametic ejaculatory substances. Results further indicate that the act of cannibalism itself might play a role in mediating sperm transfer. This study highlights the importance of understanding mechanisms of sperm transfer when attempting to interpret the outcome of sperm competition studies.
Key words: copulation duration, Latrodectus hasselti, redback spider, sexual cannibalism, sperm competition, sperm transfer.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  J. M. Schneider and K. Lesmono Courtship raises male fertilization success through post-mating sexual selection in a spider Proc R Soc B, September 7, 2009; 276(1670): 3105 - 3111. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 K. Welke and J. M. Schneider Inbreeding avoidance through cryptic female choice in the cannibalistic orb-web spider Argiope lobata Behav. Ecol., September 1, 2009; 20(5): 1056 - 1062. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
T. M. Jones and M. A. Elgar Male insemination decisions and sperm quality influence paternity in the golden orb-weaving spider Behav. Ecol., March 1, 2008; 19(2): 285 - 291. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. C.B Andrade, L. Gu, and J. A Stoltz Novel male trait prolongs survival in suicidal mating Biol Lett, September 22, 2005; 1(3): 276 - 279. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
L. S.E Snow and M. C.B Andrade Multiple sperm storage organs facilitate female control of paternity Proc R Soc B, June 7, 2005; 272(1568): 1139 - 1144. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|