Maydianne Andrade | |
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| Born | Jamaica |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Alma mater | Simon Fraser University (BSc) University of Toronto at Mississauga (MSc) Cornell University (PhD) |
| Spouse | Andrew Mason |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Ecology |
| Institutions | University of Toronto at Scarborough |
Maydianne Andrade is a Jamaican-born Canadian ecologist. She is known for her work on the mating habits of spiders, in particular spiders belonging to the Latrodectus species. [1] In 2007, she was named a Canadian Research Chair in Integrative Behavioural Ecology. [2]
Andrade was born in Kingston, Jamaica and immigrated with her parents to Vancouver, Canada when she was three years old. [3]
Andrade earned her BSc in 1992 from Simon Fraser University before pursuing a MSc in zoology in 1995 from the University of Toronto at Mississauga. [3] Her MSc thesis was entitled "Mating behavior and constraints on reproductive success in a spider with male sexual sacrifice". [4] Andrade then gained her PhD from Cornell University in 2000 under the co-supervision of Stephen T. Emlen and Paul W. Sherman, investigating "Sexual selection and male mating behavior in a cannibalistic spider." [5]
Andrade is a professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough, whose research explores how the reproductive behaviours of males and females evolve through the interaction of sexual and natural selection in different ecological contexts. [6] Her best known work is about the mating habits of Australian redback spiders where the most successful males often increase the amount of time they spend mating while being cannibalized by female redbacks. [7]
She is the Canada Research Chair in Integrative Behavioural Ecology and is the vice-dean of faculty affairs and equity at the University of Toronto Scarborough. [8] Andrade serves as special adviser to the Dean at the University of Toronto Scarborough. [9] She has published over 75 academic publications, which have been cited over 3,000 times, resulting in a h-index and i10-index of 36 and 51 respectively. [10]
In 2005, Andrade was named one of the Brilliant 10 by Popular Science magazine. [11] She appeared in the second episode of Season 4 of Nova ScienceNow . [12] In 2020 Andrade was featured in and presented an episode of CBC's The Nature of Things with David Suzuki about recent discoveries at the Burgess Shale, called "First Animals", [13] and was interviewed for Quirks & Quarks on her research and work towards racial equity in STEM. [14] She was the 2021 Carleton University's Discovery Lecturer. [9] Andrade also hosts the weekly podcast "The New Normal." [8]
Andrade is the co-founder and president of the Canadian Black Scientists Network, and recently led the group to host a virtual conference, called BE‑STEMM 2022, to highlight Black Canadians in the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. [15] [16] [17] Over 1,500 individuals were in attendance. [15] Andrade also co-chairs the Toronto Initiative for Diversity and Excellence, and serves on the Steering Committee for the University of Toronto's Black Research Network. [9] [18] [19]
She works in a lab adjacent to that of her husband, Andrew Mason. [11]
Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecious species, which consist of most animals and some plants. Differences may include secondary sex characteristics, size, weight, color, markings, or behavioral or cognitive traits. Male-male reproductive competition has evolved a diverse array of sexually dimorphic traits. Aggressive utility traits such as "battle" teeth and blunt heads reinforced as battering rams are used as weapons in aggressive interactions between rivals. Passive displays such as ornamental feathering or song-calling have also evolved mainly through sexual selection. These differences may be subtle or exaggerated and may be subjected to sexual selection and natural selection. The opposite of dimorphism is monomorphism, when both biological sexes are phenotypically indistinguishable from each other.
Latrodectus is a broadly distributed genus of spiders with several species that are commonly known as the true widows. This group is composed of those often loosely called black widow spiders, brown widow spiders, and similar spiders. However, the diversity of species is much greater. A member of the family Theridiidae, this genus contains 34 species, which include several North American "black widows". Besides these, North America also has the red widow Latrodectus bishopi and the brown widow Latrodectus geometricus, which, in addition to North America, has a much wider geographic distribution. Elsewhere, others include the European black widow, the Australian redback spider and the closely related New Zealand katipō, several different species in Southern Africa that can be called button spiders, and the South American black-widow spiders. Species vary widely in size. In most cases, the females are dark-coloured and can be readily identified by reddish markings on the central underside (ventral) abdomen, which are often hourglass-shaped.
Various non-human animal species exhibit behavior that can be interpreted as homosexual or bisexual. This may include same-sex sexual activity, courtship, affection, pair bonding, and parenting among same-sex animal pairs. Various forms of this are found in every major geographic region and every major animal group. The sexual behavior of non-human animals takes many different forms, even within the same species, though homosexual behavior is best known from social species.
The redback spider, also known as the Australian black widow, is a species of highly venomous spider believed to originate in South Australia or adjacent Western Australian deserts, but now found throughout Australia, Southeast Asia and New Zealand, with colonies elsewhere outside Australia. It is a member of the cosmopolitan genus Latrodectus, the widow spiders. The adult female is easily recognised by her spherical black body with a prominent red stripe on the upper side of her abdomen and an hourglass-shaped red/orange streak on the underside. Females usually have a body length of about 10 millimetres (0.4 in), while the male is much smaller, being only 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) long.
Animal sexual behaviour takes many different forms, including within the same species. Common mating or reproductively motivated systems include monogamy, polygyny, polyandry, polygamy and promiscuity. Other sexual behaviour may be reproductively motivated or non-reproductively motivated.
The raft spider, scientific name Dolomedes fimbriatus, is a large semi-aquatic spider of the family Pisauridae found throughout north-western and central Europe. It is one of only two species of the genus Dolomedes found in Europe, the other being the slightly larger Dolomedesplantarius which is endangered in the UK.
Argiope bruennichi is a species of orb-web spiders distributed throughout Central and Northern Europe, North Africa, parts of Asia, and the Azores archipelago. Like many other members of the genus Argiope, it has strikingly yellow and black markings on its abdomen.
Latrodectus hesperus, the western black widow spider or western widow, is a venomous spider species found in western regions of North America. The female's body is 14–16 mm in length and is black, often with an hourglass-shaped red mark on the lower abdomen. This "hourglass" mark can be yellow, and on rare occasions, white. The male of the species is around half this length and generally a tan color with lighter striping on the abdomen. The population was previously described as a subspecies of Latrodectus mactans and it is closely related to the northern species Latrodectus variolus. The species, as with others of the genus, build irregular or "messy" webs: unlike the spiral webs or the tunnel-shaped webs of other spiders, the strands of a Latrodectus web have no apparent organization.
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, both in ancient and in recent times.
Spider cannibalism is the act of a spider consuming all or part of another individual of the same species as food. It is most commonly seen as an example of female sexual cannibalism where a female spider kills and eats a male before, during, or after copulation. Cases of non-sexual cannibalism or male cannibalism of females both occur but are notably rare.
Sexual cannibalism is when an animal, usually the female, cannibalizes its mate prior to, during, or after copulation. It is a trait observed in many arachnid orders and several insect and crustacean clades. Several hypotheses to explain this seemingly paradoxical behavior have been proposed. The adaptive foraging hypothesis, aggressive spillover hypothesis and mistaken identity hypothesis are among the proposed hypotheses to explain how sexual cannibalism evolved. This behavior is believed to have evolved as a manifestation of sexual conflict, occurring when the reproductive interests of males and females differ. In many species that exhibit sexual cannibalism, the female consumes the male upon detection. Females of cannibalistic species are generally hostile and unwilling to mate; thus many males of these species have developed adaptive behaviors to counteract female aggression.
A courtship display is a set of display behaviors in which an animal, usually a male, attempts to attract a mate; the mate exercises choice, so sexual selection acts on the display. These behaviors often include ritualized movement ("dances"), vocalizations, mechanical sound production, or displays of beauty, strength, or agonistic ability.
Monogyny is a specialised mating system in which a male can only mate with one female throughout his lifetime but the female may mate with more than one male. In this system the males generally provide no paternal care. In many spider species that are monogynous, the males have two copulatory organs, which allows them to mate a maximum of twice throughout their lifetime. As is commonly seen in honeybees, ants and certain spider species, a male may put all his energy into a single copulation, knowing that this will lower his overall fitness. During copulation monogynous males have adapted to cause self genital damage or even death to increase their chances of paternity.
Phidippus Clarus, also known as the Brilliant Jumping Spider, is a species of jumping spider found in old fields throughout eastern North America. It often waits upside down near the top of a plant, which may be useful for detecting prey, and then quickly jumps down before the prey can escape. The spider is one of 60 species in the genus Phidippus, and one of about 5,000 in the Salticidae, a family that accounts for about 10% of all spider species. P. clarus is a predator, mostly consuming insects, other spiders, and other terrestrial arthropods.
Female copulatory vocalizations, also called female copulation calls or coital vocalizations, are produced by female primates, including human females, and female non-primates. Copulatory vocalizations usually occur during copulation and are hence related to sexual activity. Vocalizations that occur before intercourse, for the purpose of attracting mates, are known as mating calls.
A nuptial gift is a nutritional gift given by one partner in some animals' sexual reproduction practices.
Sexual selection in spiders shows how sexual selection explains the evolution of phenotypic traits in spiders. Male spiders have many complex courtship rituals and have to avoid being eaten by the females, with the males of most species survive a few matings, and having short life spans.
In behavioral ecology, polyandry is a class of mating system where one female mates with several males in a breeding season. Polyandry is often compared to the polygyny system based on the cost and benefits incurred by members of each sex. Polygyny is where one male mates with several females in a breeding season . A common example of polyandrous mating can be found in the field cricket of the invertebrate order Orthoptera. Polyandrous behavior is also prominent in many other insect species, including the red flour beetle and the species of spider Stegodyphus lineatus. Polyandry also occurs in some primates such as marmosets, mammal groups, the marsupial genus' Antechinus and bandicoots, around 1% of all bird species, such as jacanas and dunnocks, insects such as honeybees, and fish such as pipefish.
Nina Wedell is a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. She was appointed as the Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow in 2019. She will investigate the evolutionary dynamics of sexual conflict and insecticide resistance genes at the University of Melbourne. Professor Wedell has pioneered the field of sexual selection, and is best known for her research on female multiple mating, polyandry. Her work has encompassed many insect systems including butterflies, moths, and flies.
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