Sexual advertisement and immune function in an arachnid species (Lycosidae)

Jari J. Ahtiainen, Rauno V. Alatalo, Raine Kortet and Markus J. Rantala

Behavioral Ecology, 2004, vol. 15, issue 4, 602-606

Abstract: A simple version of the immunocompetence handicap hypothesizes that through condition-dependence, the size of the sexual trait may be positively related to immune function at the population level. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between sexual advertisement and immune function in a natural population of male wolf spiders, Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata (Araneae: Lycosidae). Males of H. rubrofasciata have a costly and condition-dependent acoustic signal, courtship drumming. In the mating season, males drum against dry leaves while wandering around the habitat searching for receptive females. Males increase their mating success by increasing their drumming rate and mobility. We used drumming rate and mobility measured without female proximity as estimates of sexual advertisement. As estimates of male immune function, we used encapsulation rate and lytic activity. Encapsulation rate is a common challenging technique, which measures immune response against multicellular parasites. Lytic activity is a monitoring technique, which measures immune response against pathogens. Our results show that males with higher drumming rate had higher encapsulation rate. This suggests that females might use drumming rate as a signal for choosing males with good immunocompetence. Moreover, our results show that males with higher mobility had higher lytic activity. As females are more likely to encounter those males that have higher mobility, this might also select males with better immune function. Our results suggest that the immunocompetence handicap might work also among spiders, although we could not assess the causality of the relationship between sexual selection and immune function in this correlational study. Copyright 2004.

Keywords: Araneae; Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata; immunity; immunocompetence handicap; reproductive behavior; sexual selection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arh062 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:beheco:v:15:y:2004:i:4:p:602-606

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Behavioral Ecology is currently edited by Louise Barrett

More articles in Behavioral Ecology from International Society for Behavioral Ecology Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().