Meeting Abstract
The classical understanding of male reproductive costs may overestimate male reproductive resource capacity. Understanding the limits of male reproduction helps us understand the selection pressures on male reproductive phenotypes and how these phenotypes may persist in a population. There is evidence to suggest that Narnia femorata may suffer from sperm depletion. Furthermore, the loss, or autotomy, of a hind leg weapon during the juvenile stage of an N. femorata promotes the growth of larger testes. The objective of this study was to understand the extent to which sperm depletion is occurring in N. femorata and if enlargement of the testes through autotomy mitigated this depletion. I addressed these objectives by quantifying hatching success from females mated with virgin and multiply mated males that either had or had not autotomized one of their hind legs during development. Preliminary analyses suggest hatchling number and hatchling success decline as the number of previous matings by males increased. We predict that autotomized males will experience a more subtle decline in hatchling number and hatching success with increased matings when compared to their intact counterparts. This study will resolve whether or not males who have lost a pre-copulatory weapon are better equipped to compete in a post-copulatory context.
