Mate choice in males with one-shot genitalia: limited importance of female fecundity Katharina F. Schulte a , Gabriele Uhl b,1 , Jutta M. Schneider a, * a Zoological Institute, Biozentrum Grindel, University of Hamburg b Department of General and Systematic Zoology, Zoological Institute and Museum, University of Greifswald article info Article history: Received 29 April 2009 Initial acceptance 9 June 2010 Final acceptance 6 July 2010 Available online 16 August 2010 MS. number: 09-00279R Keywords: Argiope bruennichi genital mutilation male mate choice mating plug orb-web spider protandry sexual cannibalism sexual conflict sexual selection Male mate choice is expected in species in which future mating opportunities of males are strongly diminished after their first copulation and mate quality is variable unless the costs of choice exceed the benefits. Males of the spider Argiope bruennichi are mostly monogynous; they damage their paired one- shot genitalia during copulation and fall victim to sexual cannibalism. Even males that are not canni- balized can achieve a maximum of two matings. Such a high mating effort implies that a male’s reproductive success can be increased by selecting the best possible mate. Mate quality may depend on female mating status and/or fecundity. Males should be selected to prefer virgin females over mated ones since previously used female genital ducts can be blocked by genital mating plugs. Fecundity is a common approximation of female quality and in invertebrates is generally correlated with body size and mass. Argiope bruennichi females vary in body size and fecundity, providing a basis for male selec- tivity. By creating binary choice situations in field and laboratory experiments in which search costs were largely removed, we tested whether males show mate choice. There was weak evidence for a male preference based on female phenotype. However, virgin females were significantly preferred over mated females even if the virgin had a less fecund phenotype. We conclude that selective benefits of mating first with a female override potential benefits of choice based on female fecundity, leading to compe- tition for virgin females. Ó 2010 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Sexual selection through mate choice is recognized as a major evolutionary force and whether mate choice evolves depends on the balance between the benefits of choice and its costs (Andersson 1994). The magnitude of benefits largely depends on the variation in quality among individuals of the selected sex, while costs are largely influenced by the searching and sampling efforts of the selecting sex (Wiegmann et al. 1999). These costs are largest in sequential choice situations where potential mates have to be located, evaluated and perhaps revisited depending on the sampling rule (Janetos 1980; Janetos & Cole 1981). Sequential choice requires cognitive abilities, involves physiological costs related to sampling and decision making, and is associated with manifold risks of mate search and sampling (Real 1990, 1991; Wiegmann et al. 1996). In addition to the risks of predation, the searching sex may face a certain probability of not finding another, better mate if the first one is rejected or of not finding another partner at all. Hence, in species with sequential mate choice, fitness benefits of choice should be particularly high to balance the costs. Sequential choice is rarely an issue for the male sex which is generally viewed as facing few limits to mating frequencies (Bateman 1948; Wong et al. 2004). In the absence of paternal care, males are expected simply to mate with every female they encounter, unless the expected encounter rates exceed the avail- able sperm supplies required to fertilize all eggs from multiple females (Trivers 1987). However, in monogynous species males are selected to mate with one or at the most two females (Andrade & Kasumovic 2005; Fromhage et al. 2005, 2008). In spiders with sedentary females and roving males, monogyny has evolved several times independently (Miller 2007). Males generally stop building a web as adults and instead search for mates guided by pheromones that receptive females emit (Foelix 1996; Gaskett 2007). Monogy- nous males invest maximally in fertilizing a single female, a strategy associated with male sacrifice, sexual cannibalism and genital mutilation (Elgar & Schneider 2004; Miller 2007). Males that invest maximally in a single female can optimize their repro- ductive success by directing this major investment towards a female of an advantageous mating status and/or of high fecundity (Andrade & Kasumovic 2005). Several studies have found that males of various spider taxa clearly prefer virgin over mated * Correspondence: J. M. Schneider, Biozentrum Grindel, University of Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany. E-mail address: js@gilgamesh.de (J.M. Schneider). 1 G. Uhl is at the Department of General and Systematic Zoology, Zoological Institute and Museum, University of Greifswald, 14787 Greifswald, Germany. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Animal Behaviour journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/anbehav 0003-3472/$38.00 Ó 2010 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.07.005 Animal Behaviour 80 (2010) 699e706