Iporangaia – Body condition affecting mating success and parenting behavior

Female mate choice is usually based on traits that signal male quality as a sexual partner. According to the ‘good parent hypothesis’, female mate choice may also consider male quality as a caregiver in species with male-only care. Because parental activities may be costly, males in good condition should be more attractive to females than those in poor condition. We experimentally manipulated the body condition of parental and non-parental males of the egg-tending harvestman Iporangaia pustulosa and then evaluated how it affected their mating success and ability to protect eggs under field conditions. For non-parental males, individuals in good condition had twice the probability of mating than those in poor condition. For parental males, individuals in good condition had two times more chances of mating and acquired four times more eggs than those in poor condition. Surprisingly, males’ body condition had no effect on the efficiency of egg protection. Thus, our results indicate that th...