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Viability Costs of Condition-Dependent Sexual Male Display in a Drumming Wolf Spider

The Royal Society
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
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Abstract

According to the conditional handicap models females use male ornaments as honest signals of male viability. The assumptions for honest signalling are that the traits are costly and that they reflect male phenotypic condition, and hence optimal trait size is largest in the most viable males. However, experimental evidence for the costs of signalling are scarce. In this study we experimentally tested whether acoustic signalling, drumming, in a wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata is a condition dependent, costly trait, and thus offers an honest signal of quality to females. Males of this species court females by drumming dry leaves with their abdomen. Females prefer to mate with males of high drumming rate, but body mass of males does not affect female choice. We manipulated phenotypic condition of males by keeping them in high, intermediate and low food levels. Males in a high food level treatment maintained their drumming rate at a high level, while males with intermediate and low food levels exhibited a reduction in drumming rates. Thus, phenotypic condition of the males affects their sexual signalling. We induced another set of males to increase their drumming activity by presenting females in proximity. These males suffered higher mortality and lost significantly more weight than other males, confirming that drumming is costly. However, within the increased treatment group males that drummed most actively survived better than less active males. Thus, males vary in their ability to bear the costs of drumming, which suggests that drumming is an honest signal of male quality (= conditional handicap) for females.
... Such context-or environment-dependent effects are not uncommon. Traits that are useful during competitive interactions, like conspicuous traits to attract mates (Dougherty, 2021;Mappes et al., 1996;Woods et al., 2007) or fighting appendages like antlers or horns (Emlen, 2008;Miller, 2013), are costly to produce, but expression costs likely depend on the environment, at least partly. Indeed, individuals that grow in better conditions or are better provisioned often show more extravagant traits without suffering a greater cost of expression (Mappes et al., 1996;Vehrencamp et al., 1989). ...
... Traits that are useful during competitive interactions, like conspicuous traits to attract mates (Dougherty, 2021;Mappes et al., 1996;Woods et al., 2007) or fighting appendages like antlers or horns (Emlen, 2008;Miller, 2013), are costly to produce, but expression costs likely depend on the environment, at least partly. Indeed, individuals that grow in better conditions or are better provisioned often show more extravagant traits without suffering a greater cost of expression (Mappes et al., 1996;Vehrencamp et al., 1989). The suggestion from our analysis is that context-dependent traits of the sort should become linked to characters that improve the environment when this environment is bequeathed to relatives. ...
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Organisms continuously modify their environment, often impacting the fitness of future conspecifics due to ecological inheritance. When this inheritance is biased towards kin, selection favours modifications that increase the fitness of downstream individuals. How such selection shapes trait variation within populations remains poorly understood. Using mathematical modelling, we investigate the coevolution of multiple traits in a group-structured population when these traits affect the group environment, which is then bequeathed to future generations. We examine when such coevolution favours polymorphism as well as the resulting associations among traits. We find in particular that two traits become associated when one trait affects the environment while the other influences the likelihood that future kin experience this environment. To illustrate this, we model the coevolution of (a) the attack rate on a local renewable resource, which deteriorates environmental conditions, with (b) dispersal between groups, which reduces the likelihood that kin suffers from such deterioration. We show this often leads to the emergence of two highly-differentiated morphs: one that readily disperses and depletes local resources; and another that maintains these resources and tends to remain philopatric. More broadly, we suggest that ecological inheritance can contribute to phenotypic diversity and lead to complex polymorphism.
... One hypothesis called the handicap principle suggests that sexual traits are costly, and 40 these costs ensure that trait expression is not arbitrary. Costly traits lower fitness by reducing 41 survival (Kotiaho et al., 1998;Møller & de Lope, 1994;Mappes et al., 1996) Individuals should therefore express traits at a level that maximizes their benefits relative to their 44 unit of cost (Grafen, 1990a(Grafen, , 1990bNur & Hasson, 1984;Zahavi, 1977). For example, the 45 handicap principle posits that sexually selected traits scale with quality because low-quality 46 individuals pay more for, or benefit less from, costly traits compared to high-quality individuals. ...
... Females 391 prefer to mate with males that drum at higher rates . However, drumming is 392 energetically demanding and, sometimes, lethal (Kotiaho, 2000;Mappes et al., 1996). Males fed 393 high-volume diets are better able to sustain and survive these costs compared to males on low-394 volume diets (Kotiaho, 2000). ...
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Evolutionary theory suggests that individuals should express costly traits at a magnitude that optimizes the trait bearer’s cost-benefit difference. Trait expression varies across a species because costs and benefits vary among individuals. For example, if large individuals pay lower costs than small individuals, then larger individuals should reach optimal cost-benefit differences at greater trait magnitudes. Using the cavitation-shooting weapons found in the big claws of male and female snapping shrimp, we test whether size- and sex-dependent expenditures explain scaling and sex differences in weapon size. We found that males and females from three snapping shrimp species (Alpheus heterochaelis, Alpheus angulosus, and Alpheus estuariensis) show patterns consistent with tradeoffs between weapon and abdomen size. For male A. heterochaelis, the species for which we had the greatest statistical power, smaller individuals showed steeper tradeoffs. Our extensive dataset in A. heterochaelis also included data about pairing, breeding season, and egg clutch size. Therefore, we could test for reproductive tradeoffs and benefits in this species. Female A. heterochaelis exhibited tradeoffs between weapon size and egg count, average egg volume, and total egg mass volume. For average egg volume, smaller females exhibited steeper tradeoffs. Furthermore, in males but not females, large weapons were positively correlated with the probability of being paired and the relative size of their pair mates. In conclusion, we identified size-dependent tradeoffs that could underlie reliable scaling of costly traits. Furthermore, weapons are especially beneficial to males and burdensome to females, which could explain why males have larger weapons than females.
... Past investment in mating effort by males can also be energetically expensive and impose costs (Somjee et al. 2018;O'Brien et al. 2019) that lower body condition (Mappes et al. 1996), reduce endurance (Rometsch et al. 2021) and thereby affect future reproductive success. For example, male D. melanogaster who had invested into mating behavior (controlling for the rate of ejaculation) die sooner than naïve males (Cordts and Partridge 1996). ...
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Past reproductive effort allows males to assess their ability to acquire mates, but it also consumes resources that can reduce their future competitive ability. Few studies have examined how a male’s reproductive history affects his subsequent mate choice; and, to date, no study has determined the relative contribution of past mating behavior and past ejaculate production because these two forms of investment are naturally highly correlated. Here, we disentangled the relative effects of past mating behavior and past ejaculate production in mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) by experimentally preventing some males from ejaculating when trying to mate. We assessed the effect of mating behavior on mate choice by comparing males that had previously been with or without access to females and male rivals for 8 and 16 weeks; and assessed the effect of ejaculation on mate choice by comparing males that either could or could not ejaculate when they had access to females for 16 weeks. Reproductive treatment did not affect male attractiveness, but it did affect male mate choice. Somewhat surprisingly, in 5 of the 6 treatment-age at testing combinations, males preferred a female in the vicinity of a male rival over a solitary female. This preference was marginally stronger for males that had previously engaged in mating behavior but was unaffected by past ejaculate production. We discuss the potential benefits to males of associating with another male when seeking mates. This is the first study to quantify the relative influence of pre- and post-copulatory reproductive investment on male mate choice.
... Traits that are proportional to size or condition might therefore change with decreasing size or condition (Ryan and Brenowitz 1985;Hagman and Forsman 2003;Bonduriansky 2007;Han et al. 2020). For example, in acoustic signals, body mass is typically negatively correlated with dominant frequency (i.e., pitch; Gillooly and Ophir 2010), and body condition is generally positively correlated with more exaggerated expression of temporal features such as call rate (Mappes et al. 1996;Scheuber et al. 2003;Humfeld 2013). If mass and condition decline under climate change, dominant frequency of signals could increase and temporal features could "slow down" concomitantly. ...
Article
Climate change is altering species' habitats, phenology, and behavior. Although sexual behaviors impact population persistence and fitness, climate change's effects on sexual signals are understudied. Climate change can directly alter temperature-dependent sexual signals, cause changes in body size or condition that affect signal production, or alter the selective landscape of sexual signals. We tested whether temperature-dependent mating calls of Mexican spadefoot toads (Spea multiplicata) had changed in concert with climate in the southwestern United States across 22 years. We document increasing air temperatures, decreasing rainfall, and changing seasonal patterns of temperature and rainfall in the spadefoots' habitat. Despite increasing air temperatures, spadefoots' ephemeral breeding ponds have been getting colder at most elevations, and male calls have been slowing as a result. However, temperature-standardized call characters have become faster, and male condition has increased, possibly due to changes in the selective environment. Thus, climate change might generate rapid, complex changes in sexual signals with important evolutionary consequences.
... Energetic costs of vibrational signaling have been so far studied only in four arthropod species, the tenebrionid beetle Psammodes striatus (Lighton 1987), the wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata (Kotiaho et al. 1998a), the bushcricket Docidocercus gigliotosi (Römer et al. 2010), and the leafhopper Aphrodes makarovi (Kuhelj et al. 2015b). Indicatively, since male drumming in H. rubrofasciata is audible to humans, in the original publications on sexual selection and associated costs in this species, the authors either described drumming exclusively as an air-borne signal or mentioned the possibility that it may be perceived as substrateborne vibrations as less likely Mappes et al. 1996;Parri et al. 1997;Kotiaho et al. 1998a,b;Kotiaho et al. 1999;Rivero et al. 2000) and only later acknowledged the importance of the vibrational channel (e.g., Kotiaho et al. 2004;Huber 2005). As shown in Table 4.2, P. striatus and D. gigliotosi are relatively large insects, while H. rubrofasciata and A. makarovi are smaller and comparable in size. ...
Chapter
Costs associated with the production of signals used in sexual communication play a central role in the sexual selection theory. Arthropods relying on substrate-borne vibrations have often been included among examples of acoustic communication; however, taking into account that air-borne and substrate-borne mechanical signals are subject to different selection pressures when they travel through the environment via different transmission media, the costs associated with the production of these two types of mechanical signals are also likely to differ. So far, remarkably little is known about costs associated with substrate-borne vibrational communication. In this chapter, we provide an overview of our current knowledge on energy expenditure associated with the production of vibrational signals and indirect costs of male vibrational signaling. We also discuss some technical challenges encountered when measuring respiration rates and determining a relationship between the effort of vibrational signaling and survival. Our goal is to point out an important gap in our understanding of vibrational communication systems and stimulate further studies in this area.
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Evolutionary theory suggests that individuals should express costly traits at a magnitude that optimizes the cost-benefit ratio for the trait-bearer. Trait expression varies across a species because costs and benefits vary among individuals. For example, if large individuals pay lower costs than small individuals, then larger individuals should reach optimal cost-benefit ratios at a greater magnitude of trait expression. Using the remarkable cavitation-shooting weapons found in the big claws of male and female alpheid snapping shrimp, we test whether size- and sex-dependent expenditures explain the scaling of weapon size relative to body size and why males have larger proportional weapon size than females. We found that males and females from three snapping shrimp species ( Alpheus heterochaelis, Alpheus angulosus, and Alpheus estuariensis ) exhibit resource allocation tradeoffs between weapon and abdomen mass. For male A. heterochaelis , the species for which we had the greatest sample size and statistical power, the smallest individuals showed the steepest tradeoff. Our extensive dataset in A. heterochaelis also included data about pairing, breeding season, and egg clutch size. Therefore, we could test for reproductive tradeoffs and benefits in this species. Female A. heterochaelis exhibited additional tradeoffs between weapon size and egg count, average egg volume, and total egg mass volume. For average egg volume, the smallest females exhibited the steepest tradeoff relative to weapon size. Furthermore, in males but not females, large weapons were positively correlated with the probability of being paired and the relative size of their pair mate. In conclusion, we establish that size-dependent tradeoffs underlie reliable scaling relationships of costly traits. Furthermore, we show that males and females differ in weapon investment, suggesting that weapons are especially beneficial to males and especially burdensome to females.
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