Data from : Hunger-dependent female receptivity leads to variable optimal polyandry with equal fitness in a nuptial gift-giving spider
Abstract
Female mating decisions are often plastic, dependent on the environment. In the nuptial gift-giving spider Pisaura mirabilis, the optimal number of matings for females depends on prey availability and is regulated by hunger-dependent receptivity. We determined the lower and upper optimal number of matings for females and test the hypothesis that females that obtain the optimal number of matings will receive that same reproductive success independently of what the optimal number is. In laboratory experiments, females were offered 0, 1, 2 or 3 house flies per day as supplementary feeding and were daily presented with 4 gift-carrying males until oviposition. Fecundity, oviposition latency, egg hatching success, and the number of live spiderlings were independent of the level of supplementary feeding. We established a trade-off between mating and aggression (i.e. gift stealing and sexual cannibalism), which are alternative ways of compensating for low foraging success. We confirmed 2-3 as the minimum optimal number of matings. The maximum optimal number of matings varied between 12 and 22-24 depending on the females’ level of aggression. Thus, female behavioral plasticity allows them to decouple their fitness from dependence on environmental prey availability through hunger-dependent receptivity.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.r2280gbpn
Description of the data and file structure
In laboratory experiments, females of the spider Pisaura mirabilis were divided into four treatment groups, which were offered 0,1, 2 or 3 house flies per day, respectively, from their maturity moult until production of an egg sac. Each day of this period, the females were sequentially confronted with four males carrying a nuptial gift, i.e. a house fly wrapped in a layer of silk. The females either mated with the males, attacked and stole their gifts without mating, attacked and cannibalized the males, or rejected them (i.e. were unresponsive). We recorded for each female the number of times she mated, the total number of flies consumed, the number of times she stole a gift or committed cannibalism. We also noted whether it was the female or the males that was in possession of the gift remnant after the copulation ended. Egg sacs were hatched and we counted the number of young emerged and the number of unhatched eggs. From these data we calculated fecundity and egg hatching success.
Files and variables
File: Data.xlsx
Description:
Variables
The excel-file has the following columns:
Female ID
Treatments: 0, 1, 2, 3 flies/day offered as food supplement
Oviposition latency: # days from start of experiment to production of an egg sac
Gift possession: number of times the female or the male was in possession of the gift remnant after copulations (2 columns)
Matings: number of times the female mated before oviposition
Gift steals: number of times the female stole a gift from a male without mating
Cannibalisms: number of times the female cannibalized a courting male
Suppl. feeding: total number of supplementary flies consumed before oviposition
Reproduction:
#eggs: number of unhatched eggs in the egg sac
#pulli: number of live young emerging from the egg sac
Fecundity: number of eggs originally laid by the female
Hatching success: proportion of eggs that hatched
Missing value are blank
Code/software
Excel
Laboratory experiments