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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on February 8, 2006
Behavioral Ecology 2006 17(3):430-434; doi:10.1093/beheco/arj045
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The effects of copulation duration in the bruchid beetle Callosobruchus maculatus

Martin Edvardssona and David Canalb

a Animal Ecology/Department of Ecology and Evolution, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, SE 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden and b Departamento de Zoología y Antropología Física, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, José Antonio Novais 2, E-28040 Madrid, Spain

Address correspondence to M. Edvardsson, who is now at the Centre for Conservation and Ecology, School of Biosciences, University of Exeter in Cornwall, Tremough Campus, Penryn, TR10 9EZ, UK. E-mail: martin.edvardsson{at}ebc.uu.se.

Control over copulation duration is a potentially important generator of sexual conflict that has received little empirical attention. The copulatory behavior of the bruchid beetle Callosobruchus maculatus may reflect a sexual conflict over copulation duration. Males have spines on their intromittent organs that puncture the female reproductive tract, and females kick their mates during copulation. If females are prevented from kicking, copulations last longer and the injuries females sustain are more severe. Males supposedly use the spines as anchors to prolong copulation duration, and females kick to terminate copulations. We manipulated copulation duration experimentally and quantified its effects on male and female fitness components to test whether or not there is a conflict over copulation duration in C. maculatus. Females did not suffer from long copulations but instead experienced increased lifetime fecundity. Ejaculate size increased with copulation duration, and females apparently derive material benefits from the ejaculates. Males that mated first and had long copulations were relatively unsuccessful when competing with sperm from other males. However, there was a trend for female remating propensity to decrease with long copulation durations, and first males may therefore also benefit from long copulations. The copulation duration of the second male to mate did not have a significant effect on sperm precedence. We conclude that even though it seems likely that the male spines have evolved to act as an anchor during copulation, there seems to be little conflict over copulation duration per se in C. maculatus.

Key words: Callosobruchus maculatus, copulation duration, ejaculate, harmful male traits, mating costs, nuptial gifts, sexual conflict, sperm competition.


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