Male courtship repeatability and potential indirect genetic benefits in a wolf spider

Indirect benefits derived by females that mate with males that express preferred traits are important to our understanding of ‘good genes’ models of sexual selection. However, few studies have explored male courtship behaviours with potential indirect benefits conferred to females in order to ascertain whether these behaviours serve as honest indicators of male quality. Using a common species of wolf spider, Pardosa milvina, we addressed the honesty of male courtship behaviours in two laboratory experiments. In our first experiment, we quantified the repeatability of courtship rate in adult males that were manipulated to be in high or low condition and were sequentially presented with adult virgin females that similarly differed in body condition. In our second experiment, we explored the effect of male courtship rate on several measures of fitness: number of offspring produced, days until offspring emerged and offspring viability measured as offspring survival. Our experiments show that male courtship rate is statistically significantly repeatable except when males in high condition have repeated encounters with females in low condition. Our results also reveal that females have the potential to gain indirect genetic benefits by mating with males that naturally court at high rates: females produced more offspring that emerged from eggsacs sooner and survived starvation better compared to females that mated with males that naturally courted at low rates. Our study provides additional support that male courtship rate is an honest indicator of quality, and it makes the novel finding that the repeatability of courtship rate is context sensitive.