From: daniel briceno <>
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR, 2006, 72, 413-421
Copulatory dialogue: female spiders sing during copulation
to influence male genitalic movements
ALFREDO PERETTI, WILLIAM G. EBERHARD and R. DANIEL BRICENO
Female behaviour during copulation that could function as
communication with the male is probably more common than previously
appreciated, but its functional significance remains little
studied. Stridulation during copulation by the female of the spider
Physocylus globosus (Taczanowski, 1873), documented here for the first
time, is common and noncoercive, thus permitting simple tests
regarding its possible function. Males squeezed females rhythmically
with their enlarged, powerful genitalia throughout copulation, and
more male genitalic squeezes were associated with increased paternity
when females mated with two males. Contextual associations suggest
that female stridulation represents attempts to induce the male to
interrupt genitalic squeezes: female stridulation was more common when
the male was squeezing her; females were more likely to stridulate
when individual male squeezes were longer, and when the male had not
responded to a previous stridulation by loosening a squeeze; females
were more likely to refrain from stridulating when the male loosened a
squeeze; males were more likely to loosen squeezes when the female
stridulated; and female stridulation was associated with rejection of
males in other contexts. Males that responded to female stridulation
more consistently by loosening their squeezes obtained greater
paternity. Possible female communicatory behaviour during copulation
is known in other species. Future attention to female as well as to
male behaviour, and to possible dialogues during copulation, promises
to be valuable in understanding sexual interactions.
|