Nuptial gift in the spider Pisaura mirabilis maintained by sexual selection

The nuptial prey gift in the spider Pisaura mirabilis has been suggested to function as a male protection against sexual cannibalismduring courtship and mating. This hypothesis together withtwo alternatives—male mating effort and paternal investment hypotheses—were tested in a laboratory experiment withsexually inexperienced males and females. One group of malesoffered no gift to the female while three groups of males offeredsmall, medium, or large sized gifts, respectively. No malewas cannibalized among 82 trials. Aggression was observed onlyin encounters where a gift was presented. Males without a gift courted females, and 40% of these males managed to copulate,compared to 90% of males offering a gift. The copulation durationwas positively correlated with gift size. In general, the femaleterminated the copulation and ran away with the gift. The proportionof eggs fertilized increased with copulation time. Presenceor size of the nuptial gift did not affect female fecundityor spiderling size significantly. The results refute the hypothesesof sexual cannibalism and paternal investment. The nuptialgift represents a male mating effort; it entices the femaleto copulate, facilitates coupling during copulation, and byprolonging copulation it may increase the amount of sperm transferred.I conclude that the nuptial prey gift in Pisaura mirabilisis maintained by sexual selection.