Previous Interspecific Courtship Impairs Female Receptivity to Conspecifics in the Parasitoid Wasp Nasonia longicornis But Not in N. vitripennis.

Magdalena Mair,Nicole Seifert,Joachim Ruther

doi:10.3390/insects9030112

Abstract

Interspecific sexual interactions are not uncommon in animals. In sympatry, females often face the risk of accidentally mating with a heterospecific male. Based on the actual risks imposed by the environment at a given time and place, females should be able to adjust their mate acceptance in order to avoid interspecific copulations as well as accidentally refusing to mate with a conspecific. We investigate the ability of females of the two parasitoid wasp species Nasonia vitripennis (Nv) and N. longicornis (Nl) to adjust their mate acceptance in response to previous unsuccessful courtship by heterospecific males. We show that Nl females are more reluctant to mate with a conspecific male when having been courted previously by a heterospecific male, but Nv females are not. We argue that this strategy is reasonable for Nl females but not for Nv females, which follow a different strategy to avoid the fitness costs imposed by heterospecific copulations.

Highlights

Reproductive interference is common among a wide variety of animal taxa [1]
To avoid the fitness costs arising from interspecific copulations, the ability to discriminate between conspecific and heterospecific courtship partners usually evolves in the choosing sex [7]
For Nasonia vitripennis (Nv) females, we hypothesize that if they adjust their mating rates, they do so to a lesser degree because, firstly, Nv females show stronger mate discrimination in general, and secondly, they counteract costs of heterospecific matings by increased remating with a conspecific. We address these hypotheses by performing mating trials with Nv and N. longicornis (Nl) females without prior contact to any male, and with females that have been courted previously by a heterospecific male

Summary

Introduction

Reproductive interference is common among a wide variety of animal taxa [1]. Due to incomplete species recognition during mate acquisition, signals sometimes attract individuals of the wrong species [2,3], courtship is directed towards the wrong mating partners [4], males try to copulate with heterospecific females [5], and females occasionally become receptive to heterospecific males [6]. A female assesses the species of the courting male, and refrains from copulation if the male does not belong to the same species. Mate discrimination acts as an important prezygotic hybridisation barrier [8,9], and is important in species in which females mate only once during their lifetime and post-mating reproductive isolation is complete [10].

Results

Discussion

Conclusion