Integrative Behavioural Ecology of Mating

spider
previous arrow
next arrow
PlayPause
Shadow
Slider

Professor Maydianne CB Andrade, President Canadian Black Scientists Network

We examine how reciprocal effects of ecological and social factors influence reproductive tactics, life history decisions, physiological performance, and sexual selection. One recent focus is exploring how these processes shape divergence in phenotypic traits related to mating in geographically separated populations. Our work includes laboratory and field studies of invertebrates, and our primary study organisms are the black widow spiders (genus Latrodectus).

Female south american widow spider hangs in a web.

South American Widow spider subject of new study led by L. Baruffaldi

 

 

Recent Publications
  • NEW: L Baruffaldi, MCB Andrade. 2021. Female control of a novel form of cannibalism during copulation in a South American widow spider. Behavioural Processes, 188: 104406.
  • LB Castilho, MCB Andrade, RH Macedo. 2021. Males mate indiscriminately in the tropical jumping spider Hasarius adansoni (Audouin, 1826). Ethology 127 (1), 83-90
  • CE Scott, S McCann, and MCB Andrade. “Black widows as plastic wallflowers: female choosiness increases with indicators of high mate availability in a natural population.” Scientific Reports 10.1 (2020): 1-9.
  • L Baruffaldi, MCB Andrade. 2020 Immature mating as a tactic of polygynous male western widow spiders. The Science of Nature 107 (1), 1-4
  • LB Castilho, RH Macedo, MCB Andrade. 2020. Individual preference functions exist without overall preference in a tropical jumping spider. Animal Behaviour 160, 43-51