CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Sexual conflict has been put forward to explain male persistence to mate even when females are not ready to so. One example of this is when females are caring for their offspring and males persuade them to copulate. If females accept to copulate, offspring may end up with a reduced survival if this requires continuous female attendance. We explored this form of sexual conflict using the spider Holocnemus pluchei whose females care for their eggs. We investigated whether a) males persist to copulate with females when the latter are carrying an egg sac, and b) eggs required continuous female care under varying temperature and humidity conditions, and given predation risk by conspecifics and a co-existing spider species, Pholcus phalangiodes. We found that males persisted and were successful in copulating with a few egg sac-carrying females. Unattended eggs died because of: a) high humidity conditions that lead to fungal infection; b) predation by conspecific spiders only; and, c) conspecific males throwing egg sacs away. We interpret these results as supportive of a sexual conflict scenario in which females may give up and accept to copulate perhaps because the costs of male persistence are too high via egg predation. Thus, in this species, mating during an episode of maternal care may represent a situation of conflict for females. A review of other pholcid species, suggests that such conflict may be widespread.

enviar mensaje