A Cognitive Framework for Mate Choice and Species Recognition

Sex pheromone communication in moths is a well investigated case of mate-finding by chemical signals, but the evolutionary causes of the great complexity and diversity of these signals are still not generally agreed on. In the present paper, I argue that there is no reason to dismiss species recognition as a possible cause of evolutionary change in moth sex pheromones. Admittedly, selection for species recognition cannot explain all of the diversity in sex pheromones and the data supporting this contention are weak, but the alternative causes suggested, invoking mate choice between conspecifics as the mechanism of sexual selection, has so far no empirical support. Finding and analysing genes responsible for m ate choice is important to corroborate any theory of sexual selection and speciation. In this respect genetic dissection of moth pheromone communication has provided important progress. Mendelian genes controlling differences in m ate choice and in the production of mate recognition signals have been found. Polymorphic pheromone systems give the population biologists unique possibilities to study mate choice and selection at the genotype level in nature.

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Evolution of passwords for cost-free honest signalling between symbionts and hosts

10.1101/065755 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marco Archetti ◽

J. Benjamin Miller ◽

Douglas W. Yu

Keyword(s):

Mate Choice ◽

Species Recognition ◽

Partner Choice ◽

Honest Signal ◽

Potential Conflict ◽

Honest Signalling ◽

Complex Species ◽

Juvenile Mortality ◽

Honest Signals ◽

Soft Selection

AbstractHonest communication between potential partners with conflicting interests is generally thought to require costly signals. Costly signalling can explain partner choice when it is possible to link a strategic cost to an individual’s quality, like in mate choice. However, in mutualisms, it is usually impossible to link a cost to the likelihood that a potential partner will behave cooperatively in the future. In fact, signals like Nod factors in rhizobial bacteria, which form symbioses with leguminous plants, are evidence of cost-free, honest signals in situations of potential conflict. How can such a signalling system evolve? We use a population-genetics model to show that a cost-free, honest signal can evolve when the receiver is under soft selection, which is when high juvenile mortality does not lead to a corresponding reduction in fitness, a common occurrence in many species. Under soft selection, senders evolve increasingly complex messages of identity, a system akin to a password or a lock and key. Thus, a symbiont can signal that it shares a coevolutionary history with a potential host, and if that history is mutualistic, then the host can believe that the symbiont is mutualistic. Password signalling might also explain the acquisition of some defensive symbionts and the evolution of complex species-recognition signals in mate choice. “…Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him….” — Judges 12:6, King James Version

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Chapter Nine. Species-Recognition and Mate Choice

Ecology and Evolution of Darwin's Finches (Princeton Science Library Edition) ◽

10.1515/9781400886715-010 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 222-252

Keyword(s):

Mate Choice ◽

Species Recognition

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Selection on male sex pheromone composition contributes to butterfly reproductive isolation

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2014.2734 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 282 (1804) ◽

pp. 20142734 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

P. M. B. Bacquet ◽

O. Brattström ◽

H.-L. Wang ◽

C. E. Allen ◽

C. Löfstedt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sex Pheromone ◽

Mate Choice ◽

Reproductive Isolation ◽

Species Recognition ◽

Sensory Modality ◽

Character Displacement ◽

Reproductive Character Displacement ◽

Male Sex Pheromone ◽

Pheromone Composition ◽

Male Sex

Selection can facilitate diversification by inducing character displacement in mate choice traits that reduce the probability of maladaptive mating between lineages. Although reproductive character displacement (RCD) has been demonstrated in two-taxa case studies, the frequency of this process in nature is still debated. Moreover, studies have focused primarily on visual and acoustic traits, despite the fact that chemical communication is probably the most common means of species recognition. Here, we showed in a large, mostly sympatric, butterfly genus, a strong pattern of recurrent RCD for predicted male sex pheromone composition, but not for visual mate choice traits. Our results suggest that RCD is not anecdotal, and that selection for divergence in male sex pheromone composition contributed to reproductive isolation within the Bicyclus genus. We propose that selection may target olfactory mate choice traits as a more common sensory modality to ensure reproductive isolation among diverging lineages than previously envisaged.

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Species specificity and intraspecific variation in the chemical profiles of Heliconius butterflies across a large geographic range

10.1101/573469 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Kathy Darragh ◽

Gabriela Montejo-Kovacevich ◽

Krzysztof M. Kozak ◽

Colin R. Morrison ◽

Clarisse M. E. Figueiredo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mate Choice ◽

Strong Correlation ◽

Species Recognition ◽

Population Level ◽

Species Traits ◽

Geographic Range ◽

Biologically Active ◽

Species Identity ◽

Strong Signal ◽

Chemical Profiles

AbstractIn many animals, mate choice is important for the maintenance of reproductive isolation between species. Traits important for mate choice and behavioural isolation are predicted to be under strong stabilising selection within species, however such traits can also exhibit variation at the population level driven by neutral and adaptive evolutionary processes. Here, we describe patterns of divergence among androconial and genital chemical profiles at inter- and intra-specific levels in mimetic Heliconius butterflies. Most variation in chemical bouquets was found between species, but there were also quantitative differences at the population level. We found a strong correlation between interspecific chemical and genetic divergence, however, this correlation varied in intraspecific comparisons. We identified ‘indicator’ compounds characteristic of particular species that included known biologically active compounds, suggesting an approach for identification of candidate compounds for future behavioural studies in novel systems. Overall, the strong signal of species identity suggests a role for these compounds in species recognition, but with additional potentially neutral variation at the population level.

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Conflicting preferences within females: sexual selection versus species recognition

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2011.0027 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 525-527 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Gil G. Rosenthal ◽

Michael J. Ryan

Keyword(s):

Sexual Selection ◽

Mate Choice ◽

Species Recognition ◽

Multiple Cues ◽

Individual Female

Preferences for mates within and between species are often harmonious, as traits that females prefer are usually more developed in conspecifics than heterospecifics. This need not be the case, however. When it is not, conflict between these arenas of mate choice can be resolved if females attend to different cues for each task. But this raises the potential for correlations among preferences to limit the opportunity for these two processes to operate independently. Here, we show that, within individual female pygmy swordtails ( Xiphophorus pygmaeus ), directional preferences for conspicuous ornamentation are inversely associated with discrimination against a sympatric heterospecific, Xiphophorus cortezi . Thus, mate choice among and within species need not be separate, independent processes; instead, they can be mechanistically intertwined. As a consequence, different arenas of mate choice can constrain one another, even when females assess multiple cues.

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