10.5061/DRYAD.5DV41NS5G
da Silva, Amanda Vieira
0000-0002-1353-2773
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Oliveira, Reisla
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Peixoto, Paulo Enrique Cardoso
0000-0003-4127-625X
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Web wars: Males of the golden orb-web spider invest more in fights for
mated and aggregated females
Dryad
dataset
2021
Agonistic interactions
male-male contests
resource value
female traits
mate-searching
intrasexual selection
National Council for Scientific and Technological Development
https://ror.org/03swz6y49
130948/2018-7
National Council for Scientific and Technological Development
https://ror.org/03swz6y49
311212/2018-2
ANEEL*
ANEEL / CEMIG Proecos*
GT- 599
Coordenação de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
https://ror.org/00x0ma614
88882.316026/2019-0
ANEEL
ANEEL / CEMIG Proecos
GT- 599
2021-01-28T00:00:00Z
2021-01-28T00:00:00Z
en
50541 bytes
3
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
In addition to resource value, the cost of finding mates may affect how
much males invest in fights for females. The cost of finding females may
be imposed through natural factors extrinsic to males, such as female
spatial distribution and predation pressure, which can be challenging to
simulate in laboratory conditions. Therefore, studies under natural
conditions may be suitable for understanding how the costs of finding
mating partners affect male investment in fights. We used the spider
Trichonephila clavipes to evaluate the hypotheses that males in field
conditions invest more in contests for access to (1) unmated and (2) more
fecund females, and (3) when access to females is harder. To test these
hypotheses, we recorded the occurrence, duration and escalation of induced
contests between males located in webs of females that differed in
reproductive status (estimated by female life stage), fecundity (estimated
by female abdominal area) and spatial distribution (i.e. isolated or
aggregated with webs of other females). The occurrence and duration of
contests were unrelated to female value or search costs. However, the
probability for escalation was higher when males were fighting for adult
(and probably mated) females. We also found that males tended to start a
contest more often in aggregated webs. These results indicate that males
of T. clavipes adjust investment in contests, but contrarily to what we
expected. We suggest males invest more in contests for adult females
because they are defending females that they previously fertilized to
avoid sperm competition.