Copulatory behaviour of the goblin spider Silhouettella loricatula (Arachnida: Araneae: Oonopidae)

Summary Knowledge of the reproductive biology of spiders belonging to the group Haplogynae is very limited. Oonopidae are a diverse haplogyne family systematically placed within the Dysderoidea. The life history of most oonopids is unknown. The present study describes the copulatory behaviour of Silhouettella loricatula (Roewer, 1942), a member of the subfamily Gamasomorphinae, including pre- and postcopulatory behaviour, avoidance behaviour, and female aggressive behaviour. Eleven out of 29 females mated in the laboratory and the first-copulations lasted 0.6–1.33 h. Five out of eleven females that had copulated once in the laboratory accepted a second male for copulation. The second-copulations lasted 0.66–1.26 h. Previous studies on S. loricatula revealed that females dump sperm of previous males during subsequent matings. The prolonged copulation duration in S. loricatula can be best explained by processes involving sperm dumping. In addition, males may perform mate guarding during the long matings. It is suggested that the male palp movements during copulation function as copulatory courtship in order to stimulate the female. Females showed seemingly more aggression during the trials for the second-copulations, indicating that they become less receptive with increasing copulation numbers.