Abstract
Condition-dependent secondary sexual traits and signals are often crucial for mate choice decisions. Nuptial gifts, provided by the male to the female during mating, may represent an indicator of male condition, especially if production of the gift is energetically costly. Additionally, other signalling modalities may well play a role in mate choice in such systems. Females of the nursery web spider Pisaura mirabilis preferably mate with males that provide a prey item wrapped in silk. Apart from the nuptial gift, vibrational signals employed during courtship and mating may reveal additional information about male condition. We tested condition-dependence of male vibrational signals of well-fed versus starved males, when in contact with female dragline silk and during mating trials. Our results show that vibrational signals are produced in P. mirabilis, both during pre-copulatory courtship and during copulation. Male courtship signals were condition-dependent: males in good condition initiated signalling earlier and emitted more vibrational pulses than poor-condition males. They were also more likely to be accepted by the female for copulation. We additionally identified vibrational signals during copulation. These signals were different from pre-copulatory courtship vibrations but did not differ between the treatment groups. This study shows that vibrational communication plays an important role before and during copulation in P. mirabilis. It sets the stage for further experiments on spider biotremology associated with nuptial gift giving behaviour.Significance statementMale courtship behaviour can indicate a male’s condition and quality and be subject to female mate choice. Vibrational communication during mating plays a crucial role in many animal species. Spiders are known to be extremely sensitive towards vibrations, and there is evidence that vibratory signals are also used during courtship. Here, we study the nuptial gift-giving spider Pisaura mirabilis in which courtship entails providing a nuptial gift by the male to the female. The gift quality determines on the probability and duration of mating. We investigated the role of vibrational behaviour in this species by standardizing nuptial gifts. Our study demonstrates that vibratory signals comprise information about the male’s condition, that signals are also produced during mating and that courtship and copulatory signals are strikingly different. We suggest that vibrational communication provides important condition-dependent traits for female mate choice in addition to the nuptial gift.
Highlights
Secondary sexual traits, such as the antlers of deer or the dazzling colouration of many birds as well as their displays and songs, are considered costly and usually condition-dependent (Zahavi 1975)
During insertion, we recorded a so-called insertion vibration of a characteristic structure, which consists of two distinct parts (Fig. 1e; 100%, n = 23): insertion vibration part 1 (IV1) are short pulses of stable amplitude and higher dominant frequency (229 ± 30 ms, 90 ± 5.9 Hz; more broad band with 2–3 major frequency peaks); usually, 3–4 pulses are repeated in a sequence
These IV1 pulses are usually followed by insertion vibration part 2 (IV2) which is characterized by a longer series of repeated low-frequency pulses
Summary
Secondary sexual traits, such as the antlers of deer or the dazzling colouration of many birds as well as their displays and songs, are considered costly and usually condition-dependent (Zahavi 1975) Since such conditiondependent traits or signals are often indicators of the individual’s underlying quality, they are crucial for mate choice decisions (Andersson and Simmons 2006). Provision of nourishment by the male to the female before, during or after mating, is known from many arthropods (Vahed 1998; Albo et al 2013b; Prokop and Semelbauer 2017) If production of such a gift is energetically costly, its quality may represent an indicator of male condition, e.g. in terms of foraging efficiency (Kotiaho 2001; Bradbury and Vehrencamp 2011; Prokop and Semelbauer 2017). We hypothesized that females acquire information about the feeding status of males using vibrational signals males potentially produce during courtship
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