Search results for " evolution."

2020

Animals engage in a plethora of mutualistic interactions with microorganisms that can confer various benefits to their host but can also incur context-dependent costs. The sawtoothed grain beetle Oryzaephilus surinamensis harbors nutritional, intracellular Bacteroidetes bacteria that supplement precursors for the cuticle synthesis and thereby enhance desiccation resistance of its host. Experimental elimination of the symbiont impairs cuticle formation and reduces fitness under desiccation stress but does not disrupt the host’s life cycle. For this study, we first demonstrated that symbiont populations showed the strongest growth at the end of metamorphosis and then declined continuously in …

Collapse of the endemic lizard Podarcis pityusensis on the island of Ibiza mediated by an invasive snake

2021

Abstract The invasive snake Hemorrhois hippocrepis colonized the island of Ibiza (Balearic Islands) in 2003 as stowaways inside trunks of olive trees imported for gardening. It has quickly spread since 2010, posing a threat to the island’s only remaining endemic vertebrate, the Ibiza wall lizard Podarcis pityusensis. We map the yearly expansion rate of the snake and estimate via transect surveys how severely it affects the distribution and abundance of the endemic lizard. As well, we surveyed 9 of 30 small lizard populations on islets surrounding Ibiza that have been isolated since the Last Glacial Maximum. Snakes had invaded 49% of Ibiza’s land area by 2018, and censuses show a critical co…

A link between heritable parasite resistance and mate choice in dung beetles

2019

AbstractParasites play a central role in the adaptiveness of sexual reproduction. Sexual selection theory suggests a role for parasite resistance in the context of mate choice, but the evidence is mixed. The parasite-mediated sexual selection (PMSS) hypothesis derives a number of predictions, among which that resistance to parasites is heritable, and that female choice favors parasite resistance genes in males. Here, we tested the PMSS hypothesis using the dung beetle Onthophagus taurus, a species that can be heavily parasitized by Macrocheles merdarius mites, which are known to affect adult survival. We investigated the heritability of resistance to M. merdarius, as well as whether female …

Transparency reduces predator detection in chemically protected clearwing butterflies

2018

Abstract1. Predation is an important selective pressure and some prey have evolved warning colour signals advertising unpalatability (i.e. aposematism) as an antipredator strategy. Unexpectedly, some butterfly species from the unpalatable tribe Ithomiini possess transparent wings, an adaptation rare on land but common in water where it helps avoiding predator detection.2. We tested if transparency of butterfly wings was associated with decreased detectability by predators, by comparing four butterfly species exhibiting different degrees of transparency, ranging from fully opaque to largely transparent. We tested our prediction using using both wild birds and humans in behavioural experiment…

Maternal effects and the stability of population dynamics in noisy environments

2001

Summary 1. It is widely appreciated that complex population dynamics are more likely in systems where there is a lag in the density dependence. The transmission of maternal environmental conditions to offspring phenotype is a potential cause of such a lag. Maternal effects are increasingly found to be common in a wide range of organisms, and might thus be a frequent cause of nonequilibrium population dynamics. 2. We show that a maternal effects’ lag generally increases population variability. This may result from the lag inducing cycles (or more complex dynamics) in a deterministic environment or, in a stochastic environment, from the lag interacting with environmental noise to produce more…

Environmental and ontogenetic constraints on developmental stability in the spatangoid sea urchin Echinocardium (Echinoidea)

2006

Biogeosciences, UMR-CNRS 5561, Universite de Bourgogne, 6 bd Gabriel, 21000 Dijon, FranceReceived 25 June 2004; accepted for publication 25 July 2005Spatangoid irregular sea urchins are detritivorous benthic organisms particularly prone to variations of environ-ment, and their mode of growth and plate morphology make them an appropriate model to assess the effects of envi-ronmental variations. Two populations of Echinocardium flavescens were sampled in two sites of the Norwegiancoast characterized by contrasted environmental conditions. Different morphological descriptors (plate areas, inter-landmarks distances, overall size, and shape of the posterior ambulacra) were used to appraise interi…

Bird populations most exposed to climate change are less responsive to climatic variation

2020

AbstractThe phenology of many species shows strong sensitivity to climate change; however, with few large scale intra-specific studies it is unclear how such sensitivity varies over a species’ range. We document large intra-specific variation in phenological sensitivity to temperature using laying date information from 67 populations of two European songbirds covering a large part of their breeding range. Populations inhabiting deciduous habitats showed stronger phenological sensitivity compared with those in evergreen and mixed habitats. Strikingly, however, the lowest sensitivity was seen in populations that had experienced the greatest change in climate. Therefore, we predict that the st…

SEXUAL SELECTION WHEN FERTILIZATION IS NOT GUARANTEED

2005

Much of the theory of sexual selection assumes that females do not generally experience difficulties getting their eggs fertilized, yet sperm limitation is occasionally documented. How often does male limitation form a selection for female traits that improve their mating rate? The question is difficult to test, because if such traits evolve to be efficient, sperm limitation will no longer appear to be a problem to females. Here, we suggest that changes in choosiness between populations, and in particular between virgin and mated females, offer an efficient way to test this hypothesis. We model the "wallflower effect," that is, changes in female preferences due to time and mortality costs o…

Spawning coloration and sperm quality in a large lake population of Arctic charr (Salmonidae: Salvelinus alpinus L.)

2009

The modern theories of sexual selection predict that male sexual ornaments may have evolved as reliable signals of male fertilization efficiency. However, among the studies of fishes with external fertilization, the results have yielded ambiguous evidence. In the present study, we present data on the phenotypic relationships between red spawning coloration and ejaculate quality (spermatocrit, sperm motility) from Arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus. We studied two generations (F1 and F2) of males from a large lake population, reared in a standardized hatchery environment, to determine whether differential hatchery history, or duration of hatchery selection, affected the variation in ejaculate …

Microevolutionary relationships between phylogeographical history, climate change and morphological variability in the common vole (Microtus arvalis)…

2011

Aim In this study, we analyse microevolutionary processes in common voles (Microtus arvalis) through the investigation of tooth morphological structure, in order to assess the relative impact of climate and phylogeographical history. Microevolutionary studies have shown that climate change may play a role in both population phylogeography and phenotypic differentiation. However, relatively little is known about the precise relationship between phylogeography and phenotypic variability and about how organisms respond to climate change. Location France, from sea level to the Alps (5 to > 2300 m a.s.l.). Methods This morphological analysis is based on first lower molar measurements from 16 geo…