Post-copulatory sexual selection in Pholcidae and other haplogyne spiders

CALBACHO ROSA, LUCIA SOLEDAD; PERETTI, ALFREDO VICENTE

Cryptic Female Choice in Arthropods: Patterns, Mechanisms and Prospects.

SPRINGER

Año: 2015;

Cryptic female choice in spiders may involve many mechanisms to bias paternity such as early termination of copulation, remating likelihood, sperm dumping, and others. In Pholcidae, these mechanisms seem to be very common and will be examined and documented in the present chapter. For example, in Physocyclus globosus sperm dumping involves an active role of the female. Also, in another haplogyne spider, the Onoopidae Opopaea fosuma, females are able to influence a male?s chances of fathering their offspring by exerting CFC by sperm dumping. In contrast, in the Pholcidae Holocnemus pluchei sperm mass ejection during copulation is mainly under male control. Among pholcids, some male?s rhythmic genitalic movements of the pedipalps (squeezes) during copulation have been interpreted as genitalic copulatory courtship. Recent studies have evaluated the possibility that the outcome of male-female copulatory communication affects paternity. For example, in P. globosus males that responded to female copulatory stridulation more consistently by loosening their squeezes obtain greater paternity. Future attention to female as well as to male behaviour, and to possible dialogues during copulation, promises to be valuable in understanding sexual interactions.