Search results for "reproductive strategies"

Data from: Rapid diversification of sperm precedence traits and processes among three sibling Drosophila species

2013

Postcopulatory sexual selection is credited with driving rapid evolutionary diversification of reproductive traits and the formation of reproductive isolating barriers between species. This judgment, however, has largely been inferred rather than demonstrated due to general lack of knowledge about processes and traits underlying variation in competitive fertilization success. Here, we resolved processes determining sperm fate in twice-mated females, using transgenic Drosophila simulans and D. mauritiana populations with fluorescently-labeled sperm heads. Comparisons among these two species and D. melanogaster revealed a shared motif in the mechanisms of sperm precedence, with postcopulatory…

Avian brood parasitism in the new and old worlds

The functional significance of colour polymorphism in the European common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis)

2021

Colour polymorphisms, the coexistence of two or more colour morphs of a species within a population, have long fascinated evolutionary biologists interested in the mechanisms generating and maintaining phenotypic variation in nature. The functional significance of colour polymorphisms (i.e. their adaptive value) is often linked to the selective mechanisms responsible for their maintenance over time. In lizards, the hypothesis that colour morphs may reflect alternative reproductive strategies involving differential sociosexual behaviour and/or alternative reproductive strategies has come to dominate the field. Wall lizards (family Lacertidae, genus Podarcis), with several geographically dist…

Evolutionary conflicts in a small mammal : behavioural, physiological and genetic differences between the sexes

2011

Data from: The evolutionary dynamics of adaptive virginity, sex-allocation and altruistic helping in haplodiploid animals

2017

In haplodiploids, females can produce sons from unfertilized eggs without mating. However, virgin reproduction is usually considered to be a result of a failure to mate, rather than an adaptation. Here we build an analytical model for evolution of virgin reproduction, sex-allocation, and altruistic female helping in haplodiploid taxa. We show that when mating is costly (e.g. when mating increases predation risk), virginity can evolve as an adaptive female reproductive strategy. Furthermore, adaptive virginity results in strongly divergent sex-ratios in mated and virgin queen nests (‘split sex ratios’), which promotes the evolution of altruistic helping by daughters in mated queen nests. How…