Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 116, Aarhus, Denmark.
BMC Evol Biol. 2011 Nov 14;11:329. doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-11-329.
In nuptial gift-giving species, benefits of acquiring a mate may select for male deception by donation of worthless gifts. We investigated the effect of worthless gifts on mating success in the spider Pisaura mirabilis. Males usually offer an insect prey wrapped in silk; however, worthless gifts containing inedible items are reported. We tested male mating success in the following experimental groups: protein enriched fly gift (PG), regular fly gift (FG), worthless gift (WG), or no gift (NG).
Males that offered worthless gifts acquired similar mating success as males offering nutritional gifts, while males with no gift experienced reduced mating success. The results suggest that strong selection on the nuptial gift-giving trait facilitates male deception by donation of worthless gifts. Females terminated matings faster when males offered worthless donations; this demonstrate a cost of deception for the males as shorter matings lead to reduced sperm transfer and thus give the deceiving males a disadvantage in sperm competition.
We propose that the gift wrapping trait allows males to exploit female foraging preference by disguising the gift content thus deceiving females into mating without acquiring direct benefits. Female preference for a genuine prey gift combined with control over mating duration, however, counteracts the male deception.
在有婚姻礼物馈赠的物种中，获得配偶的好处可能会促使雄性通过赠送毫无价值的礼物来进行欺骗。我们研究了毫无价值的礼物对 Pisaura mirabilis 蜘蛛交配成功率的影响。雄性通常会提供用丝包裹的昆虫猎物；然而，据报道也会有包含不可食用物品的毫无价值的礼物。我们在以下实验组中测试了雄性的交配成功率：富含蛋白质的蝇礼物（PG）、普通蝇礼物（FG）、毫无价值的礼物（WG）或无礼物（NG）。
提供毫无价值礼物的雄性获得了与提供营养礼物的雄性相似的交配成功率，而没有礼物的雄性则经历了交配成功率的降低。结果表明，对婚姻礼物馈赠特征的强烈选择促进了雄性通过赠送毫无价值的礼物进行欺骗。当雄性提供毫无价值的礼物时，雌性会更快地结束交配；这表明欺骗对雄性来说是有代价的，因为较短的交配会导致精子转移减少，从而使欺骗雄性在精子竞争中处于劣势。
我们提出，礼物包装特征允许雄性通过伪装礼物内容来利用雌性的觅食偏好，从而欺骗雌性进行交配而不获得直接利益。然而，雌性对真正猎物礼物的偏好以及对交配持续时间的控制，抵消了雄性的欺骗。
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