Male accessory gland depletion in a tephritid fly affects female fecundity independently of sperm depletion

ABRAHAM, SOLANA; MOYANO, ANDREA; MURILLO DASSO, SANTIAGO; VAN NIEUWENHOVE, GUIDO; OVRUSKI, SERGIO; PÉREZ-STAPLES, DIANA

BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2020 vol. 74

0340-5443

Production of female gametes is costly; however, there is now wide evidence across different taxa that male ejaculates are alsolimiting. Thus, multiply mated males may need to partition their ejaculate across successive matings. While more attention hasbeen payed to whether female mating with previously mated males could be sperm limited, there have been fewer studies ondepletion of other substances transferred in the male ejaculate such as accessory gland products. Here, we assessed whether malemating frequency affected mating success, copula duration, mating latency, and sperm stored by females. In addition, wemeasured male testes and accessory gland size across consecutive matings and evaluated the effect of male multiple matingon female fecundity, fertility, and remating propensity in the South American fruit fly,Anastrepha fraterculus.Weshowthatmales have the capacity to modulate ejaculate expenditure, and although sperm storage dramatically decreased after the firstmating, this had no effect on female reproductive parameters. However, males mating with five consecutive females had smalleraccessory glands. Females mated with males who had previously mated five times failed to lay any eggs. This lower propensity tolay eggs could suggest that males become depleted of products synthetized in the accessory glands, including peptides that havean effect on oogenesis and/or egg laying. We discuss our results in terms of cost of production of male accessory gland productsand the impact on female fitness according to male mating history.