Arthro-Pod EP 156: Nuptial Gifts, the Packages of Love

  Hello lovers of bugs, as well as bugs who are in love! In today's episode, we take a journey through the world of nuptial gifts within the arthropods and find out why sometimes it is best to wrap a gift before trying to go on a date. Tune in to learn the basics of why nuptial gifts exist and how they can help facilitate the mating process and generation of the next generation. This one is a bit "spicy" so if you listen with kids, prepare for some biological talk! Crickets preparing to mate after the exchange of a nuptial gifts (Photo by Biz Turnell, via https://entomologytoday.org/2020/02/14/nuptial-gifts-romantic-gestures-bug-insect-arthropod-world-valentines-day/) Show notes Insect (Order, Family) Nuptial Gift Purpose Dung beetles (O: Coleoptera, F: Scarabaeidae) Food in the form of a dung ball https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/21/2/424/323090 Part of courtship display, dung ball is used for food source to help her and the offspring Fireflies (O: Coleoptera, F: Lampyridae) some species Spermatophore contains sperm and nutrients https://now.tufts.edu/2016/12/22/firefly-gift-giving-composition-nuptial-gifts-revealed Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P8vKghAoh8   To obtain nutrients and fertilization occurs this way Giant water bug (O: Hemiptera, M: Belostomatidae) Small aquatic animals as prey (fish) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eth.12416 Part of the courtship ritual, males carry the eggs Aphids (O: Hemiptera, F: Aphididae) “mating drop” droplet of nutrient-rich fluid To obtain nutrients essential for reproduction Crickets (O: Orthopera, F: Laupala cerasina Several nuptial gifts before transferring genetic material https://www.mpg.de/9686444/nuptial-feeding-female-crickets   https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-019-2705-9 Nuptial gifts improve the amount of genetic material successfully transferred from the final spermatophore to the female Long-tailed dance flies (O: Diptera, F: Rhamphomyia longicauda Nutrients https://www.jstor.org/stable/23734479 Females do not hunt so they relay on the nuptial gifts. They fill their abdomens with air to look like their eggs are more mature so males will seek them out Imported cabbagworm butterflies (O: Lepidoptera, F: Nitrogen https://www.thegraphicleader.com/opinion/columnists/the-changing-rules-of-romance-for-the-cabbage-white-butterfly   Scorpion flies (O: Mecoptera, F: Panorpidae) Dead prey item https://www.jstor.org/stable/4536380 https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22830480-100-heres-my-nuptial-gift-a-dead-planthopper-now-can-we-mate/   To appease the female and increase chances of successful mating Questions? Comments?  Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 Get the show through Apple Podcast, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review! Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!