Unpublished field observations in Leucauge argyra, a tropical orb weaver spider, suggest the occurrence of conspicuous mating plugs that could reduce or prevent remating attempts. Otherwise, the sexual behavior of this ...

Morphological studies have documented the tendency for male genitalia to diverge rapidly compared to other body parts in many animal groups, including spiders. But documentation of how differences in genital structures of ...

Immune defense is a key feature in the life history of organisms, expensive to maintain, highly regulated by individuals and exposed to physiological and evolutionary trade-offs. In chelicerates, relatively scarce are the ...

After mating, females may experience a decline in sexual receptivity and attractiveness that may be associated with changes in the production and emission of sex pheromones. In some cases, these changes are produced by ...

Mating plugs have been proposed as a mechanism that has evolved to avoid sperm competition. Their structure and composition vary across taxa and are related to the effectiveness of its function. This effectiveness could ...

Male genital mutilation is a common mechanism by which males reduce sperm competition by plugging female insemination ducts with different parts of its own genital system. This behavior is frequent in many spider families ...

Sexual selection is thought to be an important force driving the evolution of sexually dimorphic morphology and behavior, but direct experimental tests of the functions of species-specific details of morphology are rare ...