A Parental Care-Mating Dilemma? Potential Risks for Offspring in the Pholcid Spider When Egg-Carrying Females Accept Mating

CALBACHO ROSA, LUCIA SOLEDAD; CORDOBA-AGUILAR, ALEJANDRO; MUNGUÍA-STEYER, ROBERTO; PERETTI, ALFREDO VICENTE

JOURNAL OF INSECT BEHAVIOR

SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS

Lugar: New York; Año: 2017

0892-7553

NOTA:Cabe destacar que el presente trabajo tiene fecha de publicación febrero de 2017, sin embargo considero que es pertinente incluirlo en dicho informe debido a que la toma de datos, análisis de los mismos, redacción y corrección del trabajo fueron hechos durante 2015 y 2016.Many species face a tradeoff between additional mating opportunities and theoffspring benefits (viability, quality) provided by parental care. FemaleHolocnemus pluchei spiders must abandon their eggsac, which they otherwisecarry with their chelicerae, to copulate. This may involve risks for the offspring, such as predation and fungal infection. We assessed whether (1) malesdiscriminate between eggcarrying females according to the egg developmentstage, (2) females are influenced by the egg development stage in regard to their proneness to mate, and (3) offspring are less likely to survive, due to high humidity and/or predation, in the absence of eggcarrying females. Apparently, males did not distinguish between females according to the developmental stage of the eggs they carried. However, females were more likely to mate when carrying relatively mature versus immature eggs (14?18 days and 3?6 days postoviposition, respectively). All eggsacs hatched successfully when guarded by eggcarrying females because this avoided both fungal infections (at high humidity) and cannibalism by conspecific spiders. Thus, H. pluchei females may face a tradeoff between mating and parental care. Further research should clarify why eggcarrying females mate and how females prevent their eggsacsfrom being infected by fungi.