Sexual selection in mantis (Parastagmatoptera tessellata): Decision-making mechanisms underlying male mate choice.

ROMINA SCARDAMAGLIA; ESTEBAN AVIGLIANO; FABIÁN GABELLI; LORENA POMPILIO

Pirenópolis

Congreso; 46th Annual Meeting of the Animal Behavior Society; 2009

Animal Behavior Society

Recent research has proposed that male mantis are not complicit in cannibalism and that they are able to avoid females based on hunger. Firstly, we investigate whether male mantis (Parastagmatoptera tessellata) are capable of using information regarding the energetic state of females to choose their reproductive mate. To that end, focal males (n=20) were confronted individually with three choices: a female eating a prey, a female without a prey, and a male eating a prey (control group). The males significantly prefer females that were eating a prey (choices were made after females consumed the whole prey). Secondly, we investigate whether males are sensitive to the level of aggression exhibited by females. To that end, males were confronted individually with two choices: an aggressive female (a female who exhibits strikes when a harnessed male is placed close to it), and a non aggressive female (a female who does not exhibit strikes when the same male is placed close to it). Preliminary results indicate that preferences change according to the number of strikes exhibited by females: when females exhibit just a few strikes (less than 6) the non aggressive female is chosen and when females exhibit many strikes (more than 6) then the aggressive female is preferred.