Data for: Risky business: Males choose more receptive adults over safer subadults in a cannibalistic spider

Understanding factors affecting male mate choice can be important for tracking the dynamics of sexual selection in nature. Contextual variation in reproductive costs and benefits of different types of mates may predict male choice, but mating may also be opportunistic regardless of female reproductive value. Male brown widow spiders (Latrodectus geometricus) can mate with adult as well as immature (subadult) females. Matings with adults require costly courtship and typically end with cannibalism (‘self-sacrifice’ initiated by a male somersault), but matings with subadults involve more brief courtship and no risk of cannibalism. We examined whether there was evidence for male mate choice as a function of risks associated with different types of mates and the cues available to courting males. Previous studies showed male preference for adult females based on airborne pheromones. In our study, males preferred adult females based on silk-borne contact cues. We swapped adult and subadult fem...