Search results for "precopulatory guarding"

Influence of female moulting status on pairing decisions and size‐assortative mating in amphipods

2012

8 pages; International audience; Precopulatory mate guarding is a common strategy, which has evolved in species where the female receptivity (and thus egg fertilization) is predictable, but also limited to a short period. Although males are larger than females in many amphipods, the largest males pair with the largest females, leading to a positive sizeassortative pairing. Size-assortative pairing has received much attention but how moulting physiology could affect pairing decisions has rarely been studied. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the size-assortative pairing in the freshwater amphipod Gammarus pulex is closely related to the female moult cycle. We characterized moulting status …