Abstract
Chromosomal sex determination and male heterogamety have been thought to seriously impede direct sex ratio control. However, in Pityohyphantes phrygianus, a solitary sheetweb spider with a skewed sex ratio, earlier experimental studies suggested that there are options for female control of offspring sex ratio, if females change their position during the normal mating sequence. Here we show that under natural conditions there is considerable between-female variation in positions, especially after termination of mating. Computer simulations of the orientation of female inner genitalia suggest that sperm are placed in different storage sites depending on the positions adopted. This means that a specific position after mating might potentially influence offspring sex ratio. The variance in offspring sex ratio among females in earlier experiments was binomially distributed, which leads us to conclude that females control the mean sex ratio but do not exercise direct control of the sex of individual offspring.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Austad, S. N. (1982). First male sperm priority in the bowl and doily spider, Frontinella pyramitela (Walckenaer). Evolution 36: 777-785.
Avilés, L. (1986). Sex-ratio bias and possible group selection in the social spider Anelosimus eximius. Am. Nat. 128: 1-12.
Avilés, L. (1997). Causes and consequences of cooperation and permanent-sociality in spiders. in Choe, J. C., and Crespi, B. J. (eds.), The Evolution of Social Behavior in Insects and Arachnids, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 476-498.
Avilés, L., and Maddison, W. (1991). When is the sex ratio biased in social spiders? Chromosome studies of embryos and male meiosis in Anelosimus species (Araneae, Theridiidae). J. Arachnol. 19: 126-135.
Avilés, L., Varas, C., and Dyreson, E. (1999). Does the African social spider Stegodyphus dumicola control the sex of individual offspring? Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 46: 237-243.
Avilés, L., McCormack, J., Cutter, A., and Bukowski, T. (2000). Precise, highly female-biased sex ratios in a social spider. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. Ser. B 267: 1445-1449.
Birkhead, T. R. (1998). Cryptic female choice: Criteria for establishing female sperm choice. Evolution 52: 1212-1218.
Birkhead, T. R., and Møller, A. P. (1998). Sperm competition, sexual selection and different routes to fitness. in Birkhead, T. R., and Møller, A. P. (eds.), Sperm Competition and Sexual Selection, Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 757-781.
Bukowski, T. C., and Christenson, T. E. (2000). Determinants of mating frequency in the spiny orbweaving spider, Micrathena gracilis (Araneae: Araneidae). J. Insect Behav. 13: 331-352.
Dobzhansky, T., Ayala, F. J., Ledyard Stebbins, G., and Valentine, J. W. (1977). Evolution, W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.
Eberhard, W. G. (1985). Sexual Selection and Animal Genitalia, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Eberhard, W. G. (1996). Female Control: Sexual Selection by Cryptic Female Choice, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Eberhard, W. G. (1998). Female roles in sperm competition. in Birkhead, T. R., and Møller, A. P. (eds.). Sperm Competition and Sexual Selection, Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 91-116.
Efron, B., and Tibshirani, R.-J. (1993). An Introduction to the Bootstrap, Chapman and Hall, New York.
Elgar, M. A., and Godfray, H. C. J. (1987). Sociality and sex ratios in spiders. Trends Ecol. Evol. 2: 6-7.
Fisher, N. I. (1993). Statistical Analysis of Circular Data, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Foelix, R. (1996). Biology of Spiders, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Gunnarsson, B. (1987). Sex ratio in the spider Pityohyphantes phrygianus affected by winter severity. J. Zool. Lond. 213: 609-619.
Gunnarsson, B. (1989). Local adjustment of sex ratio in the spider Pityohyphantes phrygianus. J. Zool. Lond. 217: 1-7.
Gunnarsson, B., and Andersson, A. (1992). Skewed primary sex ratio in the solitary spider Pityohyphantes phrygianus. Evolution 46: 841-845.
Gunnarsson, B., and Andersson, A. (1996). Sex ratio variation in sheet-web spiders: Options for female control? Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. Ser. B 263: 1177-1182.
Heinsohn, R., Legge, S., and Barry, S. (1997). Extreme bias in sex allocation in Eclectus parrots. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. Ser. B 264: 1325-1329.
Hellriegel, B., and Bernasconi, G. (2000). Female-mediated differential sperm storage in a fly with complex spermathecae, Scatophaga stercoraria. Anim. Behav. 59: 311-317.
Hurst, L. D., and Vollrath, F. (1992). Sex-ratio adjustment in solitary and social spiders. Trends Ecol. Evol. 7: 326-327.
Komdeur, J. (1998). Long-term benefits of egg sex modification by the Seychelles warbler. Ecol. Lett. 1: 56-62.
Komdeur, J., Daan, S., Tinbergen, J., and Mateman, C. (1997). Extreme adaptive modification in sex ratio of the Seychelles warbler's eggs. Nature 385: 522-525.
Krackow, S. (1995). Potential mechanisms for sex ratio adjustment in mammals and birds. Biol. Rev. 70: 225-241.
Maddison, W. P. (1982). XXXY sex chromosomes in males of the jumping spider genus Pellenes (Araneae: Salticidae). Chromosoma 85: 23-37.
McLain, D. K., and Marsh, N. B. (1990). Individual sex ratio adjustment in response to the operational sex ratio in the southern green stinkbug. Evolution 44: 1018-1025.
MetaCreations (1999). Carrara v. 1.0, MetaCreation, Dublin.
Rowell, D. M., and Main, B. Y. (1992). Sex ratio in the social spider Diaea socialis (Araneae: Thomisidae). J. Arachnol. 20: 200-206.
SAS (1998). StatView Reference, SAS Institute, Cary, NC.
Sheldon, B. C., Andersson, S., Griffith, S. C., Örnborg, J., and Sendecka, J. (1999). Ultraviolet colour variation influences blue tit sex ratios. Nature 402: 368-371.
Siegel, S., and Castellan, N. J. (1988). Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, 2nd ed., McGraw–Hill, New York.
Stålhandske, P., and Gunnarsson, B. (1996). Courtship behaviour in the spider Pityohyphantes phrygianus (Linyphiidae, Araneae): Do females discriminate injured males? Rev. Suisse Zool. Vol. hors serie: 617-625.
Suter, R. B. (1990). Courtship and assessment of virginity by male bowl and doily spiders. Anim. Behav. 39: 307-313.
Suzuki, S. (1954). Cytological studies in spiders. III. Studies on the chromosomes of fifty-seven species of spiders belonging to seventeen families, with general considerations on chromosomal evolution. J. Sci. Hirosh. Univ. Ser. B Div. I (Zool.) 15: 23-166.
Svensson, E., and Nilsson, J. (1996). Mate quality affects offspring sex ratio in blue tits. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. Ser. B 263: 357-361.
Uhl, G., and Gunnarsson, B. (2001). Female genitalia in Pityohyphantes phrygianus, a spider with skewed sex ratio. J. Zool. Lond. 255: 367-376.
van Helsdingen, P. J. (1965). Sexual behaviour of Lepthyphantes leprosus (Ohlert) (Araneida, Linyphiidae) with notes on the function of the genital organs. Zool. Mededelingen Leiden 41: 15-42.
Vollrath, F. (1986). Eusociality and extraordinary sex ratios in the spider Anelosimus eximius (Araneae: Theridiidae). Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 18: 283-287.
White, M. J. D. (1973). Animal Cytology and Evolution, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gunnarsson, B., Uhl, G. & Wallin, K. Variable Female Mating Positions and Offspring Sex Ratio in the Spider Pityohyphantes phrygianus (Araneae: Linyphiidae). Journal of Insect Behavior 17, 129–144 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOIR.0000025137.59613.71
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOIR.0000025137.59613.71