Search results for "Mating"

Female sexual signaling in a capital breeder, the European glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca

2021

AbstractTheory predicts that because costs constrain female sexual signaling, females are expected to have a low signaling effort that is increased with passing time until mating is secured. This pattern of signaling is expected to result from females balancing the costs associated with a higher than optimal signaling effort and those costs associated with a low signaling effort that increase the likelihood of delayed mating. We tested whether this prediction applies in the common glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca (Coleoptera, Lampyridae), a capital breeding species in which females glow at night to attract males. Contrary to predictions, we found that the duration of female sexual signaling sig…

Batesian Mimicry and Signal Accuracy

1997

RICE, W. R. 1989. Analyzing tables of statistical tests. Evolution 43:223-225. RICE, W. R., AND E. E. HOSTERT. 1993. Laboratory experiments on speciation: what have we learned in 40 years? Evolution 47: 1637-1653. SAWADA, S. 1963. Studies on the local races of the Japanese newt, Triturus pyrrhogaster Boie. II. Sexual isolation mechanisms. J. Sci. Hiroshima Univ. Ser. B 21:167-180. SPIETH, H. T, AND J. M. RINGO. 1983. Mating behavior and sexual isolation in Drosophila. Pp 223-284 in M. Ashburner, L. M. Carson, and J. N. Thompson Jr, eds. The genetics and biology of Drosophila. Academic Press, New York. TEMPLETON, A. R. 1996. Experimental evidence for the genetictransilience model of speciati…

POSTMATING ISOLATION ANALYSIS IN FOUNDER-FLUSH EXPERIMENTAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

1996

In this paper, we report a detailed analysis intended to detect postmating barriers in experimental populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura obtained through nine founderflush cycles. The number of offspring produced was determined in three consecutive generations of hybridization. It is found that the evolution of premating barriers, as shown by two of these populations, is not necessarily accompanied by the evolution of postmating ones. Under the founder-flush model of speciation proposed by Carson (1971), the first step in the speciation process is usually thought to be an incidental genetic change through founder effect affecting mating behavior so that sexual premating isolation evolves…

FOUNDER-FLUSH SPECIATION IN DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA: A LARGE-SCALE EXPERIMENT.

1993

A founder-flush-crash model of speciation has been proposed that may particularly apply to island and other colonizations. Previous laboratory experiments testing the model have given inconsistent results. We have conducted a large experiment with Drosophila pseudoobscura designed to meet the essential postulates of the model and to separately test some of the postulates. Forty-five experimental and 12 control populations have been studied during seven successive founder-flush-crash cycles, or about 50 generations. Sexual isolation tests yield significantly positive assortative mating in a few tests between pairs of experimental populations. Populations with fewer founders (N = 1 or 3) yiel…

Implications of size‐selective fisheries on sexual selection

2019

Fisheries often combine high mortality with intensive size‐selectivity and can, thus, be expected to reduce body size and size variability in exploited populations. In many fish species, body size is a sexually selected trait and plays an important role in mate choice and mate competition. Large individuals are often preferred as mates due to the high fecundity and resources they can provide to developing offspring. Large fish are also successful in competition for mates. Fisheries‐induced reductions in size and size variability can potentially disrupt mating systems and lower average reproductive success by decreasing opportunities for sexual selection. By reducing population sizes, fisher…

Variation in male fertility in a polymorphic moth, Parasemia plantaginis

2016

The maintenance of multiple morphs in warning signals is enigmatic because directional selection through predator avoidance should lead to the rapid loss of such variation. Opposing natural and sexual selection is a good candidate driving the maintenance of multiple male morphs but it also includes another enigma: when warning signal efficiency differs between male morphs, why would females choose a phenotype with lower survival? We tested the hypothesis that indirect responses to selection on correlated characters through sexual selection may substantially shape the evolution of male coloration. If male phenotypes differ in their fertilization ability, female choice against the best surviv…

Debating Sexual Selection and Mating Strategies

2006

Published at full length with the title 'Reproductive behaviour: sexual selection remains the best explanation' in Science E-letters, 6 April 2006

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…

2020

Abstract To understand how variation in warning displays evolves and is maintained, we need to understand not only how perceivers of these traits select color and toxicity but also the sources of the genetic and phenotypic variation exposed to selection by them. We studied these aspects in the wood tiger moth Arctia plantaginis, which has two locally co-occurring male color morphs in Europe: yellow and white. When threatened, both morphs produce defensive secretions from their abdomen and from thoracic glands. Abdominal fluid has shown to be more important against invertebrate predators than avian predators, and the defensive secretion of the yellow morph is more effective against ants. Her…

Evolution of life-history traits and mating strategy in males: a case study on two populations of a Drosophila parasitoid.

2016

10 pages; International audience; Abiotic and biotic factors affect life-history traits and lead populations to exhibit different behavioural strategies. Due to the direct link between their behaviour and fitness, parasitoid females have often been used to test the theories explaining these differences. In male parasitoids, however, such investigations are vastly understudied, although their mating strategy directly determines their fitness. In this study, we compared the pattern of life history traits and the mating strategy of males in two populations of the Drosophila parasitoid Asobara tabida, exposed to different biotic and abiotic conditions, with the major difference being that one o…