Risky business: males choose more receptive adults over safer subadults in a cannibalistic spider.

ABSTRACT: Understanding factors affecting male mate choice can be important for tracking the dynamics of sexual selection in nature. Male brown widow spiders (Latrodectus geometricus) mate with adult as well as immature (subadult) females. Mating with adults involves costly courtship with a repertoire of signaling behaviors, and typically ends with cannibalism ("self-sacrifice" initiated by male somersault). Mating with subadults involves brief courtship with behavioral repertoire reduced to one component (vibration) and no cannibalism. We examined male mate choice as a function of risks associated with different types of mates and the cues available to courting males. Previous studies showed male preference for adults based on air-borne pheromones, but it was unclear whether that preference

SUBMITTER: Sentenska L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9262164 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul-Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature