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Sexual behavior, cannibalism, and mating plugs as sticky traps in the orb weaver spider Leucauge argyra (Tetragnathidae)

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Abstract

Unpublished field observations in Leucauge argyra, a tropical orb weaver spider, suggest the occurrence of conspicuous mating plugs that could reduce or prevent remating attempts. Otherwise, the sexual behavior of this species remains unknown. The aims of this study were to describe the courtship behavior and copulation in L. argyra and investigate mating plug formation in this species. Fourteen virgin females and 12 plugged females were exposed to up to three males and checked for mating plug formation. Of the 12 virgins that copulated, nine produced plugs (five immediately after copulation), and the five plugged females that copulated produced another mating plug immediately after copulation. We did not detect the transfer of any male substance during copulation but observed a whitish liquid emerging from female genital ducts. Plug formation was positively associated with male twanging during courtship. One virgin and four plugged females cannibalized males. In seven trials with virgins and in three trials with plugged females, the male’s palp adhered to a substance that emerged from female genital ducts and spread on her genital plate. The male had to struggle energetically to free his glued palp; two of these males were cannibalized while trying to release their palps. Females seem to determine copulation duration by altering the timing of mating plug formation and through sexual cannibalism. This is the first case reported of a mating plug as a sticky trap for males.

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Acknowledgments

We are deeply grateful to WG Eberhard for encouraging us to carry out the present study, for enthusiastic discussions, and for critically reading the manuscript and improving the English. We thank Pedro Gaspar for permitting us to work in his oil palm plantation. We also acknowledge three referees and the Editor Sven Thatje that with their suggestions improved the final version of the manuscript. Jairo Moya-Ramírez, Andrés Rojas, Marianela Solís Del Valle, and Ju Lin Weng for their help during field work. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute supported AA with a Stanley Rand Fellowship.

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  1. Laboratorio de Etología, Ecología y Evolución, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Av. Italia 3318, CP 11600, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Anita Aisenberg

  2. Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, Ciudad Universitaria, San José, Costa Rica

    Gilbert Barrantes

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  1. Anita Aisenberg
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  2. Gilbert Barrantes
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Correspondence to Anita Aisenberg.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Aisenberg, A., Barrantes, G. Sexual behavior, cannibalism, and mating plugs as sticky traps in the orb weaver spider Leucauge argyra (Tetragnathidae). Naturwissenschaften 98, 605–613 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0807-y

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