Male black widows parasitize mate-searching effort of rivals to find females faster.

ABSTRACT: Mate-searching success is a critical precursor to mating, but there is a dearth of research on traits and tactics that confer a competitive advantage in finding potential mates. Theory and available empirical evidence suggest that males locate mates using mate-attraction signals produced by receptive females (personal information) and avoid inadvertently produced cues from rival males (social information) that indicate a female has probably already mated. Here, we show that western black widow males use both kinds of information to find females efficiently, parasitizing the searching effort of rivals in a way that guarantees competition over mating after reaching a female's web. This tactic may be adaptive because female receptivity is transient, and we show that (i) mate searching is risk

SUBMITTER: Scott CE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6710583 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature