Search results for "nuptial gift"
showing 2 items of 2 documents
Could male tergal secretions be considered as a nuptial gift in the Madeira cockroach?
2008
International audience; Many male insects provide somatic nuptial gifts that may strongly influence reproductive fitness, ensuring effective copulation or mediating paternal resource benefits in offspring. Although the courtship feeding behaviour on tergal gland secretions has been described in numerous cockroaches, studies on the function of these so-called nuptial gifts are lacking in this group. In this study, we examined, in the Madeira cockroach, Leucophaea maderae, the functional significance of tergal secretions by manipulating their availability on the back of males. We tested whether male tergal secretions function as a form of mating effort, and/or as a form of paternal investment…
When are vomiting males attractive? Sexual selection on condition-dependent nuptial feeding in Drosophila subobscura
2009
Nuptial gifts are any nutritious items or inedible tokens transferred from the male to the female as a part of courtship or copulation. Although nuptial gift donation has been studied in a variety of taxa, this behavior has been largely overlooked in Drosophila. We studied nuptial feeding in Drosophila subobscura, where the gift is a regurgitated drop of liquid, in order to examine the importance of this behavior for male mating success and female fecundity. We varied male and female condition by dietary restriction to assess any condition dependence of male nuptial feeding ability and female feeding behavior and mate discrimination. Our results show that there was directional selection for…