Reproductive behaviours in male parasitoids: From mating system to pairing pattern

Abstract It is now acknowledged that mating system is a dynamic characteristic within species or populations. Indeed, behavioural characteristics shaping the mating system can vary at the inter‐individual level, providing raw material for sexual and natural selections, and at the intra‐individual level, because of phenotypic plasticity and ontogeny of individual behaviours. Social environment is an additional source of variation in sexual behaviours. By focusing on males of the parasitoid wasp Venturia canescens , we assessed how sexual behaviours (courtship and mating) vary between and within individuals, considering males' size as inter‐individual source of variation, and age and mating experience as intra‐individual sources of variation. Consequences of the variations in sexual behaviours at the individual level are appraised by quantifying the costs in longevity and offspring production incurred by (repeatedly) mated males. At the population level, we tested the “agility hypothesis” predicting that smaller males win the male–male competition to access females, resulting in a non‐random assortative mating by size and a negative sexual selection on body size. We showed that V. canescens males are polygynous and that mating incurred longevity cost. Old males had a higher probability to court females, but no mating advantage. Smaller males tended to have a higher mating probability, but size was not under sexual selection and there was a random mating pattern according to individual size. Male–male competition intensity did not influence pairing pattern but tended to influence mating dynamic. Overall, our results suggest that sexual behaviours tended to vary at the inter‐ and intra‐individual levels and the effect of social environment remains to be more precisely described. These variations may impact individuals' reproductive success with potential ecological and evolutionary consequences that are discussed.