Courtship and Mating Behaviors of the Wolf Spider Pardosa astrigera

Courtship and mating behaviors of the wolf spider Pardosa astrigera were determined in laboratory.Results indicated that the push-up behavior of the male plays an important role in courtship.Copulation in this wolf spider species was characterized by a pattern which male alternated the use of palps after each insertion at first,and followed by consecutive insertions with each palp,with multiple expansions of the hematodocha per insertion.The numbers of palp insertions in each complete mating counted 29.625 on average.Durations of precopulatory courtship,copulation and effective copulation of the pairs mated in laboratory averaged 6 min,32 min 25 s and 11 min 11 s respectively.Results of multiple mating suggest that female P.astrigera be essentially monandrous,while males be polygynous.Female mating status influenced sexual cannibalism,in which mated females killed the mates more frequently than virgin ones.