Female mate choice in a subsocial beetle: male phenotype correlates with helping potential and offspring survival

1998 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 1213-1220 ◽  
Author(s):  
O.ANNE E RASA ◽  
SONIA BISCH ◽  
THERESA TEICHNER
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Offspring Survival ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Male Phenotype

Show me you care: female mate choice based on egg attendance rather than male or territorial traits

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 1054-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anyelet Valencia-Aguilar ◽  
Kelly R Zamudio ◽  
Célio F B Haddad ◽  
Steve M Bogdanowicz ◽  
Cynthia P A Prado
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Genetic Relatedness ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Male Reproductive Success ◽  
Offspring Survival ◽  
Territory Quality ◽  
Female Mate

Abstract Female mate choice is often based on male traits, including signals or behaviors, and/or the quality of a male’s territory. In species with obligate paternal care, where care directly affects offspring survival, females may also base their mate choices on the quality of a sire’s care. Here, we quantified male reproductive success in a natural population of the glass frog Hyalinobatrachium cappellei, a species with male parental care, to determine the influence of territory quality, male traits, and paternal care behaviors on female mate choice. We found that attending males have a higher chance of gaining new clutches than nonattending males. Our results indicate that females do not select males based only on body condition, calling persistence, or territory traits. Instead, our findings support the hypothesis that females choose males based on care status. Indeed, males already attending a clutch were 70% more likely to obtain another clutch, and the time to acquire an additional clutch was significantly shorter. We also found that males adjust their parental care effort in response to genetic relatedness by caring only for their own offspring; however, remaining close to unrelated clutches serves as a strategy to attract females and increase chances of successful mating. Thus, males that establish territories that already contain clutches benefit from the signal eggs provide to females.

Male phenotype and sperm number in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

2001 ◽  
Vol 79 (10) ◽  
pp. 1891-1896 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor E Pitcher ◽  
Jonathan P Evans
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Mating Behaviour ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Colour Pattern ◽  
River Population ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Male Phenotype ◽  
Colour Patterns

The idea that female mate choice might be adaptive is relatively easy to understand in species with resource-based mating systems in which females gain access to a territory, food, or other forms of parental care from the males with whom they mate. In contrast, the evolution of female mate choice in species exhibiting resource-free mating systems remains controversial. One such species in which males contribute nothing but sperm during mating is the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). Here, we examined whether female guppies can obtain information on male fertility (i.e., direct fertility benefits) via cues used during mate choice. Specifically, we examined whether male guppy colour patterns, body size, and mating behaviour signal their functional fertility, that is, their ability to supply a large number of sperm at copulation. We found significant correlations between male phenotype parameters and the number of sperm in male guppies originating from two wild Trinidadian populations. There were, however, significant interpopulation differences with respect to which traits were good predictors of sperm load. In the low-predation Paria River population, larger males and males with relatively more carotenoid colouration had significantly larger sperm loads, but mating behaviour (i.e., sigmoids) and melanin colouration were not good predictors of sperm load. In the high-predation Tacarigua River population, larger males, males that displayed more, and males with less yellow colouration had significantly more sperm, but other colour pattern components (area of orange and black colouration) were not good predictors of sperm load. Overall, our results suggest that there is the potential for direct fertility benefits through mate choice in the promiscuous, non-resource-based mating system of the guppy.

scholarly journals The complexities of female mate choice and male polymorphisms: Elucidating the role of genetics, age, and mate-choice copying

2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 1015-1035 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kasey D. Fowler-Finn ◽  
Laura Sullivan-Beckers ◽  
Amy M. Runck ◽  
Eileen A. Hebets
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Mate Choice Copying ◽  
Male Phenotype ◽  
Sexual Traits ◽  
The Difference

Abstract Genetic, life history, and environmental factors dictate patterns of variation in sexual traits within and across populations, and thus the action and outcome of sexual selection. This study explores patterns of inheritance, diet, age, and mate-choice copying on the expression of male sexual signals and associated female mate choice in a phenotypically diverse group of Schizocosa wolf spiders. Focal spiders exhibit one of two male phenotypes: ‘ornamented’ males possess large black brushes on their forelegs, and ‘non-ornamented’ males possess no brushes. Using a quantitative genetics breeding design in a mixed population of ornamented/non-ornamented males, we found a strong genetic basis to male phenotype and female choice. We also found that some ornamented males produced some sons with large brushes and others with barely visible brushes. Results of diet manipulations and behavioral mating trials showed no influence of diet on male phenotype or female mate choice. Age post maturation, however, influenced mate choice, with younger females being more likely to mate with ornamented males. A mate-choice copying experiment found that, following observations of another female’s mate choice/copulation, virgin mature females tended to match the mate choice (ornamented vs. non-ornamented males) of the females they observed. Finally, analyses of genetic variation across phenotypically pure (only one male phenotype present) vs. mixed (both phenotypes present) populations revealed genetic distinction between phenotypes in phenotypically-pure populations, but no distinctionin phenotypically-mixed populations. The difference in patterns of genetic differentiation and mating across geographic locations suggests a complex network of factors contributing to the outcome of sexual selection.

Female Choice in Middendorff's Grasshopper-Warbler (Locustella Ochotensis)

The Auk ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 103 (4) ◽  
pp. 694-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hisashi Nagata
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Female Choice ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Food Abundance ◽  
Territory Size ◽  
Territory Quality ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Nest Sites ◽  
Grasshopper Warbler

Abstract Morphological and territorial factors that influence female mate choice were examined in the monogamous Middendorff's Grasshopper-Warbler (Locustella ochotensis) on an islet near Fukuoka, Japan. I assumed that pairing date corresponded with female mate choice. Pairing date was correlated with both territory size and food abundance but was not correlated with selected morphological characteristics of males. Territorial quality was assumed to be correlated with territory size because preferable food resources and nest sites were distributed randomly. I conclude that female mate choice was influenced by territory quality rather than by the morphological characteristics of males.

scholarly journals The fruitless gene affects female receptivity and species isolation

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1923) ◽  
pp. 20192765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tabashir Chowdhury ◽  
Ryan M. Calhoun ◽  
Katrina Bruch ◽  
Amanda J. Moehring
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Female Receptivity ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Multiple Transcripts ◽  
Female Behaviour ◽  
Substrate Vibrations

Female mate rejection acts as a major selective force within species, and can serve as a reproductive barrier between species. In spite of its critical role in fitness and reproduction, surprisingly little is known about the genetic or neural basis of variation in female mate choice. Here, we identify fruitless as a gene affecting female receptivity within Drosophila melanogaster , as well as female Drosophila simulans rejection of male D. melanogaster . Of the multiple transcripts this gene produces, by far the most widely studied is the sex-specifically spliced transcript involved in the sex determination pathway. However, we find that female rejection behaviour is affected by a non-sex-specifically spliced fruitless transcript. This is the first implication of fruitless in female behaviour, and the first behavioural role identified for a fruitless non-sex-specifically spliced transcript. We found that this locus does not influence preferences via a single sensory modality, examining courtship song, antennal pheromone perception, or perception of substrate vibrations, and we conclude that fruitless influences mate choice via the integration of multiple signals or through another sensory modality.

scholarly journals Female butterflies prefer males bearing bright iridescent ornamentation

2007 ◽  
Vol 274 (1613) ◽  
pp. 1043-1047 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darrell J Kemp
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Sex Recognition ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Wing Colour ◽  
Enclosure Experiments ◽  
Colour Patterns

Butterflies are among nature's most colourful animals, and provide a living showcase for how extremely bright, chromatic and iridescent coloration can be generated by complex optical mechanisms. The gross characteristics of male butterfly colour patterns are understood to function for species and/or sex recognition, but it is not known whether female mate choice promotes visual exaggeration of this coloration. Here I show that females of the sexually dichromatic species Hypolimnas bolina prefer conspecific males that possess bright iridescent blue/ultraviolet dorsal ornamentation. In separate field and enclosure experiments, using both dramatic and graded wing colour manipulations, I demonstrate that a moderate qualitative reduction in signal brightness and chromaticity has the same consequences as removing the signal entirely. These findings validate a long-held hypothesis, and argue for the importance of intra- versus interspecific selection as the driving force behind the exaggeration of bright, iridescent butterfly colour patterns.

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