Department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Ilkovičova 6, Bratislava, 842 15, Slovakia.
Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, Bratislava, 845 06, Slovakia.
Sci Rep. 2024 Oct 26;14(1):25586. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-77209-9.
Sexual conflict arises from differences in reproductive interests between the sexes. We allowed the female harvestman Phalangium opilio to sequentially mate with two different males to examine female sexual receptivity in this species. Virgin females were more sexually receptive than non-virgins. Males exhibited a high interest in repeated copulations with the same female, often engaging in aggressive behaviours such as biting and reversed sexual cannibalism. Fellatio, a behaviour in which females lick the male's penis, was observed in 44% of trials and was associated with female unwillingness to mate and shorter copulation duration. Fellatio was repeatable, suggesting that it is influenced by individual characteristics or underlying physiological factors. Female lifespan was negatively correlated with the total number of eggs produced, suggesting a trade-off between reproduction and longevity. These findings provide evidence of the appearance of fellatio, a female mating strategy that evolved as compensation of avoiding unwanted sexual intercourse.
性冲突源于两性之间生殖利益的差异。我们允许雌性螲蟷 Phalangium opilio 与两个不同的雄性依次交配，以研究该物种中雌性的性接受能力。处女雌性比非处女雌性更具性接受能力。雄性对与同一只雌性重复交配表现出浓厚的兴趣，经常表现出攻击性行为，如咬和反向性食同类行为。在 44%的试验中观察到了口交行为，即雌性舔雄性的阴茎，这与雌性不愿意交配和交配持续时间更短有关。口交行为是可重复的，这表明它受到个体特征或潜在生理因素的影响。雌性寿命与产卵总数呈负相关，表明繁殖和寿命之间存在权衡。这些发现提供了口交行为出现的证据，这是一种女性交配策略，是为了避免不必要的性行为而进化而来的补偿机制。
