Communication via female resistance: sexual behavioral modulation and mutual mate choice determinants in a scorpion

OVIEDO DIEGO, MARIELA A.; MATTONI, CAMILO I.; PALEN-PIETRI, ROCÍO; OLIVERO, PAOLA A.; PERETTI, ALFREDO V.

ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2023

0003-3472

Mate choice decisions are driven by the management and adjustment of responses tomultiple sexual signals in both sexes during mating. In mutual mate choice scenarios,individuals can honestly express their quality while waiting to be chosen by theopposite sex. Scorpions are a fascinating group to study mate choice because theyexhibit a wide range of elaborate behaviors during courtship. In this study, weinvestigated the occurrence of mutual mate choice in a scorpion species for the firsttime: Urophonius achalensis, which is characterized by monandrous females (withgenital plugs) and polygynous males. We analyzed the determinants of mate choice ineach sex, both in terms of initial sexual receptivity and during courtship. We focused onassessing the decision-making process in both sexes, considering the body conditionof potential mates and the male´s assessment of the female´s mating status. Ourresults indicate the existence of mutual mate choice in U. achalensis during differentstages of mating. Both sexes evaluate different quality indicators in their mates andshow a preference for higher quality individuals (higher body condition, virgin females).Female mating status was found to influence the initial sexual predisposition of malesand the degree of sexual receptivity of females. While males with higher body conditionwere more accepted in courtship, female body condition did not affect male courtshippredisposition. We observed behavioral plasticity in both sexes based on the quality oftheir couple, which could be considered a form of communication during courtship. Wesuggest that female resistance could be considered a screening mechanism for malequality during courtship. This research makes valuable contributions to the field ofsexual communication and provides a deeper understanding of mate choice patterns inscorpions, paving the way for further investigations into the selective forces that couldshape courtship behavior and morphological traits.