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This study tests how previous mating opportunities with both conspecific and heterospecific females affect subsequent decisions in male Lygaeus simulans seed bugs, a species showing reproductive interference and male mate choice for larger females. Using a nested hierarchical design across days with controlled pairings, results show reduced mating with heterospecific L. equestris females after prior heterospecific encounters when copulation had not occurred. Male willingness to mate with conspecifics increased after prior conspecific experience and decreased after prior heterospecific experience, indicating flexible pre-copulatory decisions shaped by experience with both con- and heterospecifics.",{"@graph":69,"@context":121},[70,84,104],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/male-mating-behaviour-is-shaped-by-previous-experience-of-both-conspecific-and-heterospecific-females-in-the-seed-bug-ecological-and-evolutionary-research-article/437050/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":98,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":99,"interactionStatistic":100},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/male-mating-behaviour-is-shaped-by-previous-experience-of-both-conspecific-and-heterospecific-females-in-the-seed-bug-ecological-and-evolutionary-research-article/437050.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Adam","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-29",true,{"@type":101,"interactionType":102,"userInteractionCount":4},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":103},"ViewAction",{"@type":105,"mainEntity":106},"FAQPage",[107,113,117],{"name":108,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":110},"How does prior experience with heterospecific females affect male mating decisions in Lygaeus simulans?","Question",{"text":111,"@type":112},"Males were less likely to mate with heterospecific L. equestris females after previously encountering heterospecifics, but only when copulation had not occurred during that encounter.","Answer",{"name":114,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":115},"Does prior conspecific experience change male willingness to mate with conspecifics?",{"text":116,"@type":112},"Yes. Male willingness to copulate with conspecifics increased when males had prior conspecific experience.",{"name":118,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":119},"What experimental design was used to test the effect of mating opportunities?",{"text":120,"@type":112},"The study used a nested, hierarchical design where focal males were paired with conspecific females or left unpaired on day 1, with conspecific/heterospecific pairing changes and unpaired conditions applied on day 6, and conspecific or heterospecific pairing applied on day 8.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":123,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":125,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":127,"site_id":62},437050,1790680030,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":130},{"doc_id":127,"user_id":131,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":132,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":133,"file_id":134,"file_url":135,"file_type":136,"file_size":137,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":138,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":128,"read_time":143},1374404737137,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","Ecology and Evolution   \n RESEARCH ARTICLE  OPEN ACCESS   \nMale Mating Behaviour Is Shaped by Previous Experience of Both Conspecific and Heterospecific Females in the Seed BugLygaeus simulans  \nVicki L. Balfour1  | Cédric Aumont1,2  | Mia K. Corliss1 | David M. Shuker1   \n1School of Biology, University of St Andrews, UK | 2L'institut Agro Rennes-Angers, Rennes, France Correspondence: Vicki L. Balfour ([vb28@st-andrews.ac.uk](vb28@st-andrews.ac.uk))  \nReceived: 18 July 2025 | Revised: 17 December 2025 | Accepted: 21 December 2025  \nKeywords: context-dependence | Lygaeus simulans | mate choice | mating decisions | mating failure | reproductive interference  \nABSTRACT  \nMating decisions are often context-dependent. For example, choosy individuals may benefit from relaxing mate preferences if conspecific mates are scarce. However, prior experience of heterospecifics can also alter mating decisions, and this can influence the strength of species discrimination and/or sexual selection. Here, we investigate the effect of previous mating opportunities on the subsequent mating decisions of male Lygaeus simulans seed bugs, a species known both to experience reproductive interference (reproductive interactions with heterospecifics that are costly) and also male mate choice for larger females. We used a nested, hierarchical design whereby focal males were: (1) paired with a conspecific female or remained unpaired on day 1; (2) paired with a conspecific female, a heterospecific female, or were unpaired on day 6; (3) paired with a conspecific female or a heterospecific female on day 8. The sister species L. equestris provided the heterospecific partners. We found that males were less likely to mate with heterospecific L. equestris females if they had previously encountered a heterospecific, but only if copulation had not occurred during that encounter. Additionally, the willingness of males to copulate with conspecifics increased when males had prior conspecific experience, and decreased with prior heterospecific experience, suggesting that male pre-copulatory mating decisions are plastic and can be influenced by experience of both con-and heterospecifics.  \n1 | Introduction  \nAnimal mating decisions are often context-dependent (Cotton et al. 2006; Hebets and Vink 2007; Kim et al. 2009; Tinghitella et al. 2013; Ah-King and Gowaty 2016) . The costs and benefits of mating decisions are likely to vary depending on both external factors to the chooser (e.g., mate quality, mate density and predation risk: Jennions and Petrie 1997; Kvarnemo and Simmons 1999; Kim et al. 2009; Willis et al. 2011; Lindströmand Lehtonen 2013) as well as intrinsic ones (e.g., reproductive status, age, and condition of the chooser: Kodric-Brown and Nicoletto 2001; Hunt et al. 2005; Burley and Foster 2006; Cotton et al. 2006; Uetz and Norton 2006) . For example, if mates are scarce, or only low-quality mates are available, it should benefit  \nchoosy individuals to relax their mate preferences to reduce their chances of remaining unmated (Bleu et al. 2012; Scott et al. 2020). In addition, prior experience of potential mates can also influence future mate preferences. For instance, female Schizocosa uetzi wolf spiders that were exposed as sub-adults to males of a particular phenotype went on to develop a preference for males with those familiar phenotypes (Hebets 2003) .  \nExperience of potential mates may not only include experience of conspecifics, however (McDonald et al. 2019) . Sexual interactions between heterospecifics are common in nature (Gröning and Hochkirch 2008) . When a pair of individuals of different species engage in sexual activities, and these activities are costly to one or both species involved, this is known as reproductive  \nThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.  \n© 2026 The Author(s). E","cbCaiuXAIaVHsrOA","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiuXAIaVHsrOA","pdf",2226208,13,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction","[{\"question\":\"How does prior experience with heterospecific females affect male mating decisions in Lygaeus simulans?\",\"answer\":\"Males were less likely to mate with heterospecific L. equestris females after previously encountering heterospecifics, but only when copulation had not occurred during that encounter.\"},{\"question\":\"Does prior conspecific experience change male willingness to mate with conspecifics?\",\"answer\":\"Yes. Male willingness to copulate with conspecifics increased when males had prior conspecific experience.\"},{\"question\":\"What experimental design was used to test the effect of mating opportunities?\",\"answer\":\"The study used a nested, hierarchical design where focal males were paired with conspecific females or left unpaired on day 1, with conspecific/heterospecific pairing changes and unpaired conditions applied on day 6, and conspecific or heterospecific pairing applied on day 8.\"}]","Male Mating Behaviour Is Shaped by Previous Experience of Both Conspecific and Heterospecific Females in the Seed Bug - Ecological and evolutionary research article | PDF",33]