Limitations of sperm transfer in the complex reproductive system of spiders

Wijayamuni Dewage Sanjaya Chathuranga Dharmarathne*, Mariella Elisabeth Herberstein

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In spiders, sperm transfer from the male to the female is indirect via secondary copulatory structures, the pedipalps. At the time of transfer the sperm are not mobile and the ejaculate needs to move through narrow male and female ducts to the female sperm storage organ. In addition, copulation duration can be very short, often limited to just a few seconds. Finally, sexual cannibalism and genital damage limits male life-time mating opportunities. These features of the reproductive biology in spiders are likely to result in sperm transfer constraints. Here we review the intrinsic and extrinsic sperm transfer limitations and conduct a meta-analysis on sperm transfer data from published data. Most of the information available relates to orb-web spiders, but our meta-analysis also includes non-orb-web spiders. Our review identifies some of the behavioural factors that have been shown to influence sperm transfer, and lists several morphological and physiological traits where we do not yet know how they might affect sperm transfer.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)417-428
Number of pages12
JournalBiological Journal of the Linnean Society
Volume135
Issue number3
Early online date13 Jan 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2022

Keywords

  • copulation duration
  • male and female morphological characters
  • physiological limitations
  • reproductive behaviours
  • sperm quantification
  • sperm transfer
  • spider mating
  • spiders

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