High variation in last male sperm precedence and genital morphology in the emerald damselfly, Lestes sponsa

Abstract In organisms in which individuals mate multiply, knowledge of the proportion of offspring sired by the last male to mate (P2) under field conditions is important for a thorough understanding of how sexual selection works in nature. In many insect groups, pronounced intraspecific variation in P2 is commonplace. Interestingly, however, in stark contrast to these observations, compilation of P2 data in dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) indicates that a high P2, seldom below 0.95, is a feature of this taxon. Here we used double digest restriction-site associated DNA sequencing to generate a panel of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with which we could determine paternity and …