The time dedicated to courtship and copulation is the most general cost of mating for females. However, quantitative estimates of this cost and the consequences for female mating behavior have been investigated for only a few model organisms and mostly under laboratory conditions. We determined the costs of copulations and persistent courtship by males in terms of time for females of the solitary bee Anthrenoides micans. We estimated the rate and duration of male mating behaviors and the consequences for sexual interactions for females with respect to the loss of foraging opportunity in the wild. Males invested most of their time searching for mates and intercepted foraging females every 3 min. Copulas lasted, on average, 10 times longer than the time females took to resist male mating attempts. Despite the high frequency of these rejections (82%), females spent 3-fold more time copulating than rejecting males. Considering the rate of encounters with males and the mean duration of flower visits by females, we estimated that females would perform 64% fewer flower visits per hour if they accepted all copulation attempts. The loss of time is especially significant in the natural habitat of the species, where host cacti blossom for extraordinary short periods of time and females compete with other cacti-specialized bees and conspecifics. Because the offspring production of a female solitary bee depends on its pollen collection capacity, reduced foraging performance directly influences female reproductive success.

中文翻译：

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独居蜂的雌性拒绝雄性为后代收集食物

花费在求爱和交配上的时间是女性交配的最普遍费用。但是，仅在少数几种模式生物上，并且大部分是在实验室条件下，才对这种成本的定量估计以及对女性交配行为的后果进行了研究。我们确定了单只蜜蜂Anthrenoides micans的雌雄交配和持续求偶的时间。我们估计了雄性交配行为的速度和持续时间，以及雌性在野外觅食机会的丧失对性交往的影响。雄性大部分时间都花在寻找伴侣上，每3分钟拦截一次雌性觅食。Copulas的持续时间平均比雌性抵抗雄性交配的时间长10倍。尽管这些拒绝的频率很高（82％），但女性的交配时间却比拒绝男性多3倍。考虑到与男性的相遇率以及女性进行花访的平均时间，我们估计，如果接受所有交配尝试，则女性每小时的花访次数将减少64％。时间的损失在该物种的自然栖息地中尤其重要，寄主仙人掌会在非常短的时间内开花，雌性会与其他仙人掌专业的蜜蜂和种竞争。由于雌性单蜂的后代生产取决于其花粉的采集能力，因此降低的觅食性能直接影响雌性繁殖的成功。