Males of the two-spotted spider mite attempt to copulate with mated females: effects of double mating on fitness of either sex.

In Tetranychus urticae (Acari: Tetranychidae), when the intervals between first and second copulation are more than 24 h, only the first copulation is effective for females. Therefore, adult males should copulate only with virgin females, but not with females that copulated more than 1 day ago. Indeed, T. urticae males preferred virgin females to mated females under dual choice conditions. In the absence of virgin females, however, 60% of males copulated with mated females (n = 30). Therefore, the effects of male copulation behaviour on male and mated-female fitness were examined, respectively. Since T. urticae is arrhenotokous (i.e., only daughters have genes derived from their father), the proportion of females among the offspring was used as an index of male fitness. After males had lived with/without a mated female, the males were allowed to copulate with a virgin female. The proportion of females among the offspring did not differ between males with and without a female. On the other hand, when mated females lived with an adult male, their egg production was lower than mated females without a male. These results suggest that males do not seem to obtain fitness benefit from the copulation behaviour and that mated females incur a fitness cost due to the male behaviour.