Abstract
The immune response can be costly. Studies in several arthropod species have indicated a trade-off between immunity and other life-history traits, including reproduction. In sexually dimorphic species in which females and males largely differ in their life history strategies and related energetic demands, we can expect to find sex differences in immune functions. Sex differences in immunity are well documented in vertebrates; however, we largely lack data from invertebrate systems. Lytic activity, the immune system’s ability to lysate bacteria and viruses, has been widely used as a proxy for the strength of the immune response in several invertebrates. With this in mind, we used the burrowing wolf spider Allocosa senex to test differences in lytic activity between females and males. We also studied whether digging behavior affects the immune responses in this species. While females of A. senex construct simple refuges where they stay during the day, males construct deep burrows, which they donate to females after copulation. In accordance with our hypothesis, females showed higher lytic activity compared with males, and those males who dug showed higher levels of lytic activity than those that did not dig. Furthermore, male body condition and lytic activity did not correlate with burrow length, a trait under female choice in this species. Our results show sexual dimorphism in lytic activity responses, which are likely related to differences in life-history strategies and energetic requirements of each sex in A. senex spiders.
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Acknowledgments
We thank M. González, R. Postiglioni, L. Bidegaray, M. Carballo, and E. Stanley for the help during fieldwork. We also thank M. Laviña (Sección Microbiología) for providing the lysozyme. We are grateful to A. Díaz, G. González, M. Rosotti, and M. Pires for their support in providing the equipment and for their help during lab work. A. Dipaolo and Dr. Miguel Moreno collaborated with the technique. The authors want to thank Instituto de Higiene, Cátedra de Inmunología, Facultad de Química, Montevideo, Uruguay, for providing the laboratory for developing the lytic activity analyses. L.C.R. and F.C. would also like to thank the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET-Argentina). We thank the Editor, Matjaž Gregorič, Simona Kralj-Fišer, and anonymous referees who provided helpful and constructive comments that improved the final version of the manuscript. Finally, we are grateful to Ted Henderson for his grammar revision of the text.
Funding
A. Albín was financially supported by the Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación under the code POS_NAC_2013_1_555. A. Aisenberg and M. Simó acknowledge financial support by PEDECIBA (Programa de Desarrollo de Ciencias Básicas), and SNI (ANII). L. Calbacho-Rosa acknowledges financial support by CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología — Argentina).
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All the authors designed the experiments and A. Albín (A.R.A.) and L.C. performed them. A.R.A., A.A., and M.S. collected the spiders. A.R.A., L.C., and F.C. performed the data analysis. All the authors contributed with bibliography and wrote the manuscript.
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Albín, A., Simó, M., Cargnelutti, F. et al. Sex and burrowing behavior and their implications with lytic activity in the sand-dwelling spider Allocosa senex. Sci Nat 107, 44 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-020-01700-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-020-01700-2