Abstract

Males and females have conflicting interests on the frequency and outcomes of mating interactions. Males maximize their fitness by mating with as many females as possible, whereas choosy females often reduce receptivity following copulation. Alternative male mating tactics can be adaptive in their expression to a variety of mating contexts, including interactions with a relatively unreceptive mated female. Male Rabidosa punctulata wolf spiders can adopt distinctive mating tactics when interacting with a female, a complex courtship display, and/or a more coercive direct mount tactic that often involves grappling with females for copulation. In this study, we set up female mating treatments with initial trials and then paired mated and unmated females with males to observe both female remating frequencies and the male mating tactics used during the interactions. Males adopted different mating tactics depending on the mating status of the female they were paired with. Males were more likely to adopt a direct mount tactic with already-mated females and courtship with unmated females. Already-mated females were considerably less receptive to males during experimental trials, although they did remate 34% of the time, the majority of which were with males using a direct mount tactic. Whereas males adjusting to these contextual cues were able to gain more copulations, the observation of multiple mating in female R. punctulata introduces the potential for sperm competition. We discuss this sexual conflict in terms of the fitness consequences of these mating outcomes for both males and females.

中文翻译：

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雌性交配状态影响狼蛛 Rabidosa punctulata 的雄性交配策略表达

摘要

男性和女性在交配互动的频率和结果方面存在利益冲突。雄性通过与尽可能多的雌性交配来最大化它们的适应性，而挑剔的雌性通常会降低交配后的接受能力。另类的雄性交配策略可以在表达上适应各种交配环境，包括与相对不接受交配的雌性的互动。雄性点状野兔狼蛛在与雌性互动时可以采用独特的交配策略、复杂的求爱展示和/或通常涉及与雌性交配的更具强制性的直接安装策略。在这项研究中，我们通过初步试验设置了雌性交配处理，然后将已交配和未交配的雌性与雄性配对，以观察雌性交配频率和相互作用期间使用的雄性交配策略。雄性根据与之配对的雌性的交配状态采用不同的交配策略。雄性更有可能对已经交配的雌性采取直接上马策略，并与未交配的雌性进行求爱。在实验试验中，已经交配的雌性对雄性的接受程度要低得多，尽管它们确实有 34% 的时间重新交配，其中大多数是使用直接安装策略的男性。尽管适应这些背景线索的雄性能够获得更多的交配，但观察到雌性的多次交配R. punctulata介绍了精子竞争的潜力。我们根据这些交配结果对男性和女性的健康后果来讨论这种性冲突。