Sexual interaction is an important activity that determines the reproductive schedule of organisms and can ultimately influence the fitness traits of both sexes. Although the influence of sexual interaction on the fitness of females has been extensively determined, little is known about the effects on males, which often have different mating strategies and optimal mating regimes from those of females. To understand how mating regimes (timing and frequency) modulate the fitness in both sexes, we used spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) to investigate the influence of delayed mating and repeated mating on the fitness of male and female. For females, the unmated and the delayed mating females outlived those mated immediately after adult emergence. The repeated mating shortened the lifespan of females that mated at 1-day-old, but not that mated 7-day-old. However, no significant variation in lifespan was observed for males across different mating regimes. We found although delayed mating significantly reduced the daily reproductive rate of the females, there was no significant difference in lifetime reproduction of females across treatments because the delayed mating females increased their reproductive lifespan as a compensation. Our study highlighted that the time and frequency of sexual interaction showed a sex-specific consequence on male and female spider mites, indicating that sexual interaction incurs a higher cost to females which have a much lower optimal mating frequency than males.

中文翻译：

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红蜘蛛叶螨对延迟和重复交配的性别特异性反应

性互动是一项重要的活动，它决定了生物的繁殖时间表，并最终影响两性的适应性特征。尽管性互动对雌性健康的影响已被广泛确定，但对雄性的影响知之甚少，雄性通常具有与雌性不同的交配策略和最佳交配方式。为了了解交配方式（时间和频率）如何调节两性的适应性，我们使用了蜘蛛螨（荨麻疹) 研究延迟交配和重复交配对雄性和雌性适应性的影响。对于雌性，未交配和延迟交配的雌性比成年后立即交配的雌性长。重复交配缩短了在 1 天大时交配的雌性的寿命，而不是在 7 天大时交配的雌性。然而，在不同的交配方式下，雄性的寿命没有显着变化。我们发现，虽然延迟交配显着降低了雌性的每日繁殖率，但由于延迟交配的雌性增加了它们的生殖寿命作为补偿，因此不同处理的雌性终生繁殖没有显着差异。我们的研究强调，性互动的时间和频率对雄性和雌性红蜘蛛都有特定的性别影响，