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Sexual selection and mating behavior in spider mites of the genus Tetranychus (Acari: Tetranychidae)

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Abstract

As sexual selection is a coevolutionary process between males and females, various morphological and behavioral traits have evolved in each sex. In the tetranychid mites Tetranychus urticae Koch and T. kanzawai Kishida (Acari: Tetranychidae), males can mate repeatedly, whereas females normally accept only the first copulation for fertilization. Since early times, it had been reported that males engage in precopulatory mate guarding and combat against conspecifics for females to enhance their reproductive success. On the other hand, it was believed that females do not have opportunities to choose their mates. In the last 10 or so years, however, several new findings related to mating behavior were reported. Some of the findings reinforce our established knowledge, whereas some of them explode it. Here, I review the mating behavior of T. urticae and T. kanzawai by incorporating recent findings and then propose a new direction for future research.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Dr. A. Kawai of NARO Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science and successive editors of Applied Entomology and Zoology for their patient encouragement until writing up this manuscript, Dr. P.W. de Jong of Wageningen University for his advice for revising the manuscript, Dr. H. Smid of Wageningen University for his help taking mite photos, and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions for improving the manuscript.

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  1. National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), Agricultural Research Center, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8666, Japan

    Keiko Oku

  2. Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8031, 6700 EH, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Keiko Oku

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Oku, K. Sexual selection and mating behavior in spider mites of the genus Tetranychus (Acari: Tetranychidae). Appl Entomol Zool 49, 1–9 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13355-013-0238-7

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