Effects Of Age And Male Mating Times On The Courtship, Mating Behavior And Female Fecundity Of Pardosa Pseudoannulata(Arachnida:Lycosidae)

Courtship and mating behavior has been one of hot spots in animal behavior all the time.There have some bias for choosing mates,whether for male or female.According to sexual selection theory,the ages and mating history that both affect the choose spouse for female and male.This bias that commitment to female's fecundity finally.Spider especially the wolf spider is a typical materials in the study of sexual selection theory particularly.Currently,the studies on Pardosa pseudoannulata's behavioral were mostly committed to its reproduction,prey behavior and sexual cannibalism behavior,and there is a little research devoted to its courtship and mating behavior as the age for a main factor.Female of P.pseudoannulata can mate only once during lifetime,but for males who could multiple mate.There is no study on this mating strategy how affect male courtship and mating behavior.So that,this study main focus on P.pseudoannulata that set up two factors which age(both on male and female)and male mating times to explore the spiders' mate choice mechanisms,and also affect spider's courtship and mating behavior and its impact on the fitness of the female.Age effect on courtship and mating behavior of P.pseudoannulata:We set up three groups based on the age of the male and female spiders:both female and male for low-age group(5±0.5d),middle-age group(25±0.5d)and high-age group(60±0.5d).Three age male groups and three female age groups paired experiments combination sequentially,which has 9(3x3)treatments to explored the age effect on spider courtship and mating behavior.The success rate in total is 72.49%(195/269).The result showed that age both on female and male had no significant effect on mating success rate,pre-mating cannibalism rate and post-mating cannibalism rate(p>0.05).There has no significant on courtship latency and courtship duration with each age treatment on female and male(p>0.05).However,the impact is mainly reflected on courtship intensity.Courtship intensity enhanced with increasing age of the female when the male in the low-age,and there had highly significant differences(p=0.007).Courtship intensity on other age treatments,there had had no significant differences.Indicating that low-age male biased in favor of middle-age and high-age female.Courtship intensity also has a significantly affected on mating success rate(p=0.008),the higher the courtship intensity along with higher mating success rate.Although ages had no significant effect on the mating duration(p=0.707).However,the mating duration was prolonged with increasing male age whether the female in any age segment.Moreover,in the females within each age segment,there were both significant differences(p<0.05)when compared on male age on low-age with high-age of the mating duration.The duration is the longest while female and male both on high-age.It showed that both male in low-age of spiders prefer older spouse via the strength courtship.Male mating times effect on courtship and mating behavior of P.pseudoannulata:We set up three male's mating status,the virgin male,the once mated and twice mated.Then the success rate in total is 65.38%(55/79).The result showed that had no significant effect on success rate(p=0.725).There were also had no significant on pre-mating cannibalism rate and post-mating cannibalism rate on 3 male mating stattus treatments(P>0.05).There is no significant difference on courtship latency and courtship intensity with each male mating status treatment(p>0.05).Although there was no significant difference on the incidence of pre-mating rejected behavior(p=0.109),but Binary Logistic regression results showed that there was a negative correlation(p=0.008)between the incidence of pre-mating rejected behavior and the mating success rate.Moreover,the incidence were increased with increasing the male mating time.It's indicate that female could distinguish the males' mating status before mating.Males' courtship duration was increased with male mating times,and the time will be longer.But no significant difference existed on them(p=0.169).It means that female discriminate against the male who has been mated.Compared with mating duration of three mating status treatment,it could be longer while increase male mating times.In addition,the mating duration of 3 times mating male was significantly longer than 1 or 2 times mating male.So that the females prefer to mate with virgin males,but male had no effect on their own multiple mating courtship mating behavior.Effects of age and male mating times on female fecundity of P.pseudoannulata:Females continue to be raised that was mating successfully from age related treatments and male multiple mating treatments.Compared separately the ages affect on female and male multiple mating on female fecundity by record the females' oviposition rate,hatching rates,the number of spiderlings and its' carapace width.As age for the factor,the oviposition rate was 69.07%(134/194)in totally(record the first cocoon).The hatching ratio on cocoon was 70.15%(94/134).Each female spider hatching was closed to 100%,if a spider cocoon hatched.The results showed that both age was no significant differences in the female's oviposition rate and hatching rate(p>0.05)neither the female ages nor the male ages,and there are also showed that had no significant effect on both via compared the number of offspring and the offspring's carapace width between the pair(p>0.05).As the male mating status for factor,the oviposition rate was 80%(44/55),the hatching ratio on cocoon was 68.18%(30/44).Each female spider hatching was closed to 100%,if a spider cocoon hatched.The results showed that male multiple mating was no significant differences in the female's oviposition rate(p=0.997).And there are also showed that had no significant effect on both via compared the number of offspring and their offspring's carapace width between the pair(p>0.05).Therefore,we ruled out the possibility that P.pseudoannulata female mate choice didn't depending on genetic and material advantages,while it was related with its physiological state.