Neutral fitness outcomes contradict inferences of sexual ‘coercion’ derived from male’s damaging mating tactic in a widow spider

Abstract Sexual conflict over mating frequency has driven the evolution of morphological and behavioural traits across taxa. Interactions may be termed ‘coercive’ and assumed to arise from conflict when male mating behaviours cause physical injury to females and females appear to resist injurious ma...

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Autores principales:	Luciana Baruffaldi, Maydianne C. B. Andrade
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/6702b810c1f440338747c9b2cb0436e8
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:6702b810c1f440338747c9b2cb0436e82021-12-02T15:06:11ZNeutral fitness outcomes contradict inferences of sexual ‘coercion’ derived from male’s damaging mating tactic in a widow spider10.1038/s41598-017-17524-62045-2322https://doaj.org/article/6702b810c1f440338747c9b2cb0436e82017-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17524-6https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Sexual conflict over mating frequency has driven the evolution of morphological and behavioural traits across taxa. Interactions may be termed ‘coercive’ and assumed to arise from conflict when male mating behaviours cause physical injury to females and females appear to resist injurious matings.However, coercion per se occurs only if the behaviour reduces female fitness; and such outcomes are rarely measured. Here we show that a damaging mating tactic, apparently adaptive for males, is not coercive for females. Adult male Latrodectus spiders mate with immature females after tearing the exoskeleton covering the female’s recently-developed reproductive tract, which can cause haemolymph bleeding. We show that, relative to pairings with adult females, males use reduced courtship displays when approaching immature females, which in some cases respond with elevated deterrent behavioural responses. Nevertheless, we found no reproductive cost for immature-mated females in terms of longevity, fertility or fecundity. Moreover, most immature-mated females did not produce sex pheromones as adults, so did not seek additional matings. Thus, despite the appearance of conflict there is no evidence that immature-mating is coercive. These results show it is critical to measure fitness outcomes, in addition to behavioural responses, to test for coercion.Luciana BaruffaldiMaydianne C. B. AndradeNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Luciana Baruffaldi Maydianne C. B. Andrade Neutral fitness outcomes contradict inferences of sexual ‘coercion’ derived from male’s damaging mating tactic in a widow spider
description	Abstract Sexual conflict over mating frequency has driven the evolution of morphological and behavioural traits across taxa. Interactions may be termed ‘coercive’ and assumed to arise from conflict when male mating behaviours cause physical injury to females and females appear to resist injurious matings.However, coercion per se occurs only if the behaviour reduces female fitness; and such outcomes are rarely measured. Here we show that a damaging mating tactic, apparently adaptive for males, is not coercive for females. Adult male Latrodectus spiders mate with immature females after tearing the exoskeleton covering the female’s recently-developed reproductive tract, which can cause haemolymph bleeding. We show that, relative to pairings with adult females, males use reduced courtship displays when approaching immature females, which in some cases respond with elevated deterrent behavioural responses. Nevertheless, we found no reproductive cost for immature-mated females in terms of longevity, fertility or fecundity. Moreover, most immature-mated females did not produce sex pheromones as adults, so did not seek additional matings. Thus, despite the appearance of conflict there is no evidence that immature-mating is coercive. These results show it is critical to measure fitness outcomes, in addition to behavioural responses, to test for coercion.
format	article
author	Luciana Baruffaldi Maydianne C. B. Andrade
author_facet	Luciana Baruffaldi Maydianne C. B. Andrade
author_sort	Luciana Baruffaldi
title	Neutral fitness outcomes contradict inferences of sexual ‘coercion’ derived from male’s damaging mating tactic in a widow spider
title_short	Neutral fitness outcomes contradict inferences of sexual ‘coercion’ derived from male’s damaging mating tactic in a widow spider
title_full	Neutral fitness outcomes contradict inferences of sexual ‘coercion’ derived from male’s damaging mating tactic in a widow spider
title_fullStr	Neutral fitness outcomes contradict inferences of sexual ‘coercion’ derived from male’s damaging mating tactic in a widow spider
title_full_unstemmed	Neutral fitness outcomes contradict inferences of sexual ‘coercion’ derived from male’s damaging mating tactic in a widow spider
title_sort	neutral fitness outcomes contradict inferences of sexual ‘coercion’ derived from male’s damaging mating tactic in a widow spider
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/6702b810c1f440338747c9b2cb0436e8
work_keys_str_mv	AT lucianabaruffaldi neutralfitnessoutcomescontradictinferencesofsexualcoercionderivedfrommalesdamagingmatingtacticinawidowspider AT maydiannecbandrade neutralfitnessoutcomescontradictinferencesofsexualcoercionderivedfrommalesdamagingmatingtacticinawidowspider
_version_	1718388587046633472

Neutral fitness outcomes contradict inferences of sexual ‘coercion’ derived from male’s damaging mating tactic in a widow spider

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