Unattractiveness of Mated Females to Males in the Parasitoid Wasp Spalangia endius

Despite common stereotypes, males are not always indiscriminate and eager when it comes to mating. In the parasitoid wasp Spalangia endius, the initial response of males to females was almost always one of apparent excitement; however, this was followed by a clear preference for virgin females over...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral ecology and sociobiology 2005-02, Vol.57 (4), p.350-356
Main Authors: King, B. H., Saporito, K. B., Ellison, J. H., Bratzke, R. M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aging
Animal ethology
Biological and medical sciences
Confidence interval
Female animals
Females
First contact
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Magnetic storage
Male animals
Males
Mating behavior
Parasite hosts
Parasitoids
Protozoa. Invertebrata
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Spalangia endius
Spermatozoa
Virgin females
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Summary:Despite common stereotypes, males are not always indiscriminate and eager when it comes to mating. In the parasitoid wasp Spalangia endius, the initial response of males to females was almost always one of apparent excitement; however, this was followed by a clear preference for virgin females over mated females in both no-choice and choice situations. The no-choice data were collected from videotapes of male-female pairs of all possible combinations of mated and virgin individuals. Neither female nor male mating status had a significant effect on likelihood of, or time until, contact or male courtship fanning. However, a male's first retreat was sooner when the female was mated than when she was virgin; mated males exhibited their first retreat sooner than did virgin males; and mated females were less likely to be mounted than were virgin females. In addition to the videotapes, male-choice experiments were performed. When given a choice of a virgin and a mated female, both virgin and mated males were more likely to mount and copulate with the virgin. The difference in response to virgin versus mated females seemed to be less in virgin males than in mated males, perhaps due to virgin males' greater eagerness to mate: when a virgin male and a mated male were presented with a dead virgin female, the virgin male was usually the first to respond to the female. That males preferentially retreated from and avoided mounting mated females appears to be adaptive given that mated females rarely copulated.
ISSN:0340-5443
1432-0762
DOI:10.1007/s00265-004-0863-9