Search results for "Courtship"

Implication of an odorant-binding protein in precopulatory behaviour and interaction with the bacterial microbiota

2023

Chemoreception allows animals to detect nutritive food and avoid toxic compounds. Volatile and non-volatile chemical compounds, which are detected by olfactory and gustatory sensory organs, can trigger feeding and reproductive behaviours in animals such as Drosophila melanogaster. Inside chemosensory organs, perireceptor proteins like odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) serve to transport odorant and tastant molecule to dedicated receptors. OBPs are not only involved in chemoreception but also in several other functions. A recent study revealed an interaction between insect microbiota and OBP expression while another one showed that microbes can promote nutrient harvesting on food. In our proje…

The effect of male-male competition and ornament size on mean and variance of courtship intensity towards heterospecific and conspecific females

2015

Discrimination between hetero- and conspecifics is the elementary choice an individual performs when searching for potential mates. The level of selectivity and strength of species discrimination is modified by variance in the quality of females, level of the male’s reproductive investment, mate search costs, and the competitive environment. The effect of the competitive environment on both species discrimination and conspecific mate choice has seldom been studied simultaneously. We experimentally manipulated territorial competition ofCalopteryx splendensdamselfly males in the wild, and asked two questions. First, does increased competition influence the territorial males’ responses towards…

Mate Sampling and Assessment Procedures in Female Pied Flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca)

2010

Models of mate sampling strategies predict that choosiness should decrease throughout the breeding season due to increasing costs of delaying mating. Therefore, individuals who start searching mates relatively late, should spend less time on sampling, and sample fewer candidates compared to early individuals. We observed mate searching behavior of female pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) by radio-tracking in study areas with 6–12 unpaired males. Contrary to the prediction, the observed numbers of males sampled by the searching females increased with time, i.e. late arriving females visited more males than early arrivers. However, this seems to be due to more active sampling of males in …

Honesty of agonistic signalling and effects of size and motivation asymmetry in contests

1999

Game theoretical models predict that the main function of fighting behaviour is to assess the relative fighting ability of opponents. The sequential assessment game has often been used to investigate contests, while honest signalling theory has received much less attention. With the wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata we investigated whether male agonistic signalling can reveal honest information about fighting ability, and how size and motivation asymmetries affect male fighting behaviour. We also determined whether male–male competition affects the courtship behaviour of the males. We found that agonistic drumming activity is an honest indicator of male fighting ability, and that relati…

Costs of courtship and mating in a sexually cannibalistic orb-web spider: female mating strategies and their consequences for males

2002

The costs of courtship and mating may include increased risks of predation, the transmission of pathogens, and a loss of foraging opportunities. Thus, a female's decision to tolerate a courting male will depend upon how these costs offset the benefits of mating, which will depend on her reproductive and nutritional status. While these costs may be similar for mated and unmated females, the benefits of mating will be less for mated than virgin females. However, the cost of lost foraging opportunities may be higher for females with fewer nutritional reserves necessary for forming eggs. We examined how these costs and benefits influence the courtship and mating behaviour of male and female orb…

Species-specific sex pheromones secreted from new sexual glands in two sympatric fungus-growing termites from northern Vietnam, Macrotermes annandale…

2004

Reproductive isolation in termites is not well known. Our study carried out on two sympatric species from northern Vietnam, Macrotermes annandalei and M. barneyi, showed that dispersal flights and sex pheromones were two important factors in their reproductive isolation. These fungus-growing termites were isolated, partially due to the timing of their respective dispersal flights. M. annandalei flew the first day after rain, while the flights of M. barneyi occurred the second day after rain. However, the flights can also be simultaneous in the two species. Sex pheromones of M. annandalei and M. barneyi were shown to be species-specific. In both species, they were secreted by females from tw…

PGal4 excision reveals the pleiotropic effects of Voila, a Drosophila locus that affects development and courtship behaviour

2001

0016-6723 (Print) Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; In Drosophila melanogaster, the PGal4 transposon inserted at the chromosomal site 86E1-2 is associated with the Voila1 allele that causes multiple phenotypes. Homozygous Voila1/1 flies rarely reach adulthood and heterozygous Voila1/+ adult males display strong homosexual courtship behaviour. Both normal behavioural and developmental phenotypes were rescued by remobilizing the PGal4 element. Yet, the rescue of heterosexual courtship and of adult viability did not occur in the same strains, indicating that these defects have different genetic origins. Furthermore, many strains showed a partial rescue of both characters. Molec…

An olfactory circuit for fruit-derived odours promotes courtship in male Drosophila

2010

“‘A house divided against itself cannot stand': Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Courtship of Miles Standish and American National Unity in 1858.”

2007

International audience

Intraspecific variation in mating behaviour does not cause sexual isolation between Drosophila virilis strains

2005

There is increasing evidence that mate recognition systems vary within species. We studied the courtship rituals of five Drosophila virilis strains to investigate this intraspecific variation. Males that actively and persistently courted the female without paying much attention to the female's behaviour were the most successful at copulating. Intraspecific variation in mating rituals was high, but not as high as at the species level and it was not high enough to cause sexual isolation between the strains. The differences in courtship interactions of the strains reflected their geographical origin. Males from one of the strains did not produce audible song during their courtship, but still m…