Female secondary sexual traits in spiders: Adaptive interpretations of the sternum projection in the pholcid Holocnemus pluchei

Abstract

Sexually dimorphic traits are the outcome of a network of selective pressures acting upon each sex. While male secondary sexual traits are frequently restricted to intrasexual competition, female ornaments or weapons are mostly associated to social interactions for the access to limited resources. Here we investigate a sexually dimorphic trait expressed within the female's sternum of the spider species Holocnemus pluchei (Pholcidae), and its adaptive maintenance under the three leading hypotheses: sexual receptivity signaling, mate choice and sexual conflict hypothesis. We provide fine-scaled behavioral descriptions of the copulatory behavior of Holocnemus pluchei, corroborating that mating interactions are mediated by the female's sternum projection. The single moment of contact between the female projection and male body occurs during sperm transfer, always followed by a reduction on the intensity of the male genital movement. Additionally, biometrical properties of the female sternum projection corroborate our functional interpretation for the trait as restricting the intensity of males’ copulatory movements. We claim that female sternum projection is a sexually selected trait mediating sexual conflict, with several adaptive consequences upon the sexes.