Data from: pre-copulatory choices drive post-copulatory decisions: mechanisms of female control shift across different life stages

Scott, Catherine1 ; Sentenska, Lenka2 ; Baruffaldi, Luciana2 ; Andrade, Maydianne2

Published Aug 29, 2024 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t17

Data files

Aug 29, 2024 version files 17.73 KB

Abstract

The ‘wallflower’ hypothesis proposes females mate indiscriminately to avoid reproductive delays. Post-copulatory mechanisms may then allow ‘trading up’, favouring paternity of future mates. We tested links between pre- and post-copulatory choice in Latrodectus geometricus female spiders paired sequentially with two males. These females copulate as adults or as subadults and store sperm in paired spermathecae. Choosy adults have a higher risk of delays to reproduction than subadults. We predicted low pre-copulatory, but high post-copulatory choice at first matings for adults and the opposite for subadults. At second matings, we expected all females would prefer males superior to their first. We found all females mated indiscriminately at their first pairing, but in contrast to subadults, adults usually copulated only once (leaving one spermatheca empty); a mechanism of post-copulatory choosiness. Adult-mated females were more likely to remate than subadult-mated (adult) females, showing a preference for larger males, while subadult-mated females tended to prefer males in better condition. Our results show that the ‘wallflower’ effect and ‘trading up’ tactics can be linked, allowing females to employ choice even if rejecting males is costly.

README: Data from: pre-copulatory choices drive post-copulatory decisions: shifting mechanisms of female control across adult and subadult mating in brown widow spiders

First Author Contact Information

Name: Lenka Sentenska
Institution: University of Toronto Scarborough
Email: sentenska.lenka@gmail.com

Date of data collection: 2021

Geographic location of data collection: Scarborough, Ontario, Canada

Description of the Data and file structure

File List:
Data is contained in the file:
remating-data.csv

R code for the analysis is in the files:
remating-analyses.R; and
remating-analyses.txt

R code output for the analysis is in the file:
remating-analyses.docx

Methodological information

Description of methods used for collection/generation of data:
Data were collected in a laboratory experiment in which brown widow females each mated with two males:
First, subadult and adult females mated with naive males.
Next, adult females who had previously mated either as a subadult or adult related with new naive males.
Mating trials were video recorded and the occurrence and timing of courtship and mating behaviours were scored by an observer.
See paper for full details of data collection and analysis.

Description of methods used for analysis of data:
All analyses were conducted in RStudio 2021.09.2 build 382 using R version 4.2.1

The R following packages were used:
car
dplyr
effects
emmeans
multcomp
sjPlot
survival

DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: remating-data.csv

Number of variables: 24
Number of cases/rows: 138
Variable List:
'pairing' (categorical): female mating opportunity ('first' or 'second' exposure to a male)
'Mating' (categorical): female mating ('first' or 'second' time the female actually mated; if the female did not mate in the first pairing her second pairing was her first mating)
'stage' (categorical): stage of female during the first pairing ('adult' or 'subadult')
'precopulatory_canib' (binary): occurrence of pre-copulatory cannibalism (0 or 1)
'copulatory_canib' (binary): occurrence of copulatory cannibalism (0 or 1)
'insertion_no' (integer): number of insertions of the male's copulatory organs
'mate' (binary): occurrence of at least one insertion (0 or 1)\
'mount_no' (integer): number of times the male mounted the female's abdomen prior to the first insertion
'lunge' (integer): number of times the female lunged at the male prior to the first insertion
'flick' (integer): number of times the female flicked her front legs at the male prior to the first insertion
'twitch' (integer): number of times the female twitched her abdomen prior to the first insertion
'female_age' (integer): age of the female in days after the moult to maturity (negative values indicate subadult females prior to moulting)
'male age' (integer): age of the courting male in days after the moult to maturity
'male_weight' (numeric): mass of the courting male in mg
'days_between_mating' (integer): time between the first and second pairing in days
'ins_latency'(numeric): time from the start of the trial until the first insertion, in seconds
'mount_latency' (numeric): time from the start of the trial until the first time the male mounted the female's abdomen, in seconds
'proximal_courtship' (numeric): time from the first mount to the first insertion, in seconds (= 'ins_latency' - 'mount_latency')
'female_id' (categorical): unique identifier for individual females (each female appears twice in the dataset)
'male_id' (categorical): unique identifier for individual males (each male appears once in the dataset)
'male_leg_length' (numeric): tibia-patella length of the courting male in mm
'plug_no' (integer)': number of sperm plugs (broken-off tips of male copulatory organs) present in the female's genitalia after mating with two males (min = 0; max = 4)
'male_tips_missing' (integer): number of missing tips of copulatory organs (potential sperm plugs) after males mated (min = 0; max = 2)
'tips_deposited' (categorical): number of sperm plugs that could be assigned to a given male based on the number of tips missing from his copulatory organs, those missing from the other male who mated the same female, and plugs present in the female's genitalia (possible values: '0', '1', '2', '0 or 1', '1 or 2', '0, 1 or 2'