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Photinus Fireflies
[edit]In Photinus Fireflies, males create a spermatophore that is rich in nutrients and costly to produce.[1] The mass of this spermatophore declines after each one is subsequently produced, and male mating success also declines.[1] Females use the nutrients from the spermatophore to produce more eggs.[1]
Fire-colored Beetle
[edit]Male Neopyrochroa flabellata ingest cantharidin, a fatty substance, and transfer it to females through the spermatophore during copulation.[2] Females then use this cantharidin to protect their eggs, as eggs sired by cantharidin-fed males are significantly less likely to be eaten by predators than eggs that were not protected by cantharidin.[2]
Bushcrickets
[edit]The spermatophore provides protection to the ampulla by preventing it from being removed prematurely.[3] It is also hypothesized to provide direct nutritional benefit to the offspring through the paternal investment hypothesis.[3]
Deceptive Strategies
[edit]Since nuptial gifts increase the chance of a successful mating event, but can be costly in time and resources for organisms to produce, some will resort to "cheating" behaviors by intentionally providing a potential mate with a non-beneficial nuptial gift that appears to be beneficial.[4] This allows the “cheating” organism to have a chance at copulating without incurring the costs associated with creating a real nuptial gift for their mate.[4] Various strategies of cheating have been observed in the wild and in controlled settings.[4][5][6]
Male Pisaura mirabilis spiders will change the amount of silk used to wrap their nuptial gifts and conceal its contents, depending upon whether it is a "beneficial" or "useless" gift, with more silk being used on "useless" nuptial gifts.[4] This behavior is even present in males with limited resources. [4]
Another explanation for why males cover their nuptial gift with silk may be that it makes the gift resemble the female’s egg sac.[5] This would mean the nuptial gift is functioning as a sensory trap.[5] Female Pisaura mirabilis spiders have been shown to pick up nuptial gifts more quickly if they more closely resembled their egg sac.[5]
Male spiders have been observed stealing prey from another male’s web, and then presenting it to a receptive female before mating.[6] The male will then mate with the female while she consumes the prey.[6] This cheating strategy decreases the male’s energetic investment in foraging while still giving them an opportunity to mate.[6]
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- ^ a b c Sara M. Lewis, Christopher K. Cratsley, Jennifer A. Rooney, 2004, Nuptial Gifts and Sexual Selection in Photinus Fireflies, Integrative and Comparative Biology, Volume 44, Issue 3, Pages 234-237.
- ^ a b Thomas Eisner, Scott R. Smedley, Daniel K. Young, Maria Eisner, Braden Roach and Jerrold Meinwald, 1996, Chemical Basis of Courtship in a Beetle (Neopyrochroa flabellata): Cantharidin as ``Nuptial Gift", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, volume 93, pages 6499-6503.
- ^ a b Jay McCartney, Murray A. Potter, Alastair W. Robertson, Kim Telscher, Gerlind Lehmann, Arne Lehmann, Dagmar von-Helversen, Klaus Reinhold, Roland Achmann and Klaus-Gerhard Heller, 2008, Understanding Nuptial Gift Size in Bush-Crickets: An Analysis of the Genus Poecilimon (Tettigoniidae: Orthoptera), Journal of Orthoptera Research, Volume 17, pages 231-242
- ^ a b c d e Paolo Giovanni Ghislandi, Michelle Beyer, Patricia Velado, Cristina Tuni, 2017, Silk wrapping of nuptial gifts aids cheating behavior in male spiders, Behavioral Ecology, Volume 28, Issue 3, Pages 744-749.
- ^ a b c d Pia Stålhandske, 2002, Nuptial gifts of male spiders function as sensory traps, Proceedings: Biological Sciences, Volume 269, pages 905-908
- ^ a b c d George W. Uetz, Andrea McCrate and Craig S. Hieber, 2010, Stealing for love? Apparent nuptial gift behavior in a kleptoparasitic spider, The Journal of Arachnology, Volume 38, pages 128-131