Gut parasites infection increases mate rejection in a species with indirect sperm transfer

PALEN PIETRI, ROCIO; CEBALLOS ALEJANDRA; PERETTI, ALFREDO

ETHOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2023

0179-1613

In animals where both males and females have high costs associated with reproduction, it is not rare that both sexes evaluate their potential mate conditions to make the most beneficial choice according to their preferences. Parasite-mediated selection theories predict that individuals would evaluate the ability of their potential mates to resist parasites and decide whether to accept or reject mating based on that information. These studies of parasite-mediated sexual selection had been carried out through the traditional sex roles perspectives. Our study species in this paper is one with indirect sperm transfer, the pseudoscorpion Lustrochernes argentinus, and we evaluated mating on the health condition (infected or not) of both males and females. Our hypothesis is that both females and males evaluate the health status of their potential partners and for that we analyzed (1) if gregarine-infected individuals suffer a higher proportion of rejection by their uninfected partners and if (2) spermatophore use success is lower when any of the individuals are infected. We tested this in a behavioral laboratory trial, comparing rejection by the male and by the female and spermatophore use in four experimental groups. We found that both males and females suffer a higher probability of rejection when infected with gregarines; the maximum probability of sperm uptake success is when both individuals are healthy. These findings are the first evidence of male mate choice in pseudoscorpions and show that parasite-mediated selection would operate on both sexes.