scholarly journals Structure of Lekking Courts of Male White-Bearded Manakins (Manacus Manacus) Is Linked to Their Attractiveness

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirill Tokarev ◽  
Yntze van der Hoek
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Courtship Behavior ◽  
Courtship Display ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Manacus Manacus ◽  
Courtship Displays

AbstractMale White-bearded Manakins (Manacus manacus) perform courtship displays on individual courts in close proximity of each other, while females visit them to choose potential mates. These displays represent a sequence of physiologically demanding movements, including rapid hops between saplings on the court. Our observations of courtship behavior and court characteristics of eight males suggest that the structure of the court may be an important factor in courtship: we found regularities in the inter-sapling distances on the courts of males that attracted females. We hypothesize that sexual selection by females may favor those males that have courts providing an optimal platform for their courtship display.Estructura de escenarios de lek de saltarines barbiblancos (Manacus manacus) es conectada a su atractivoResumen: Los saltarines barbiblancos (Manacus manacus) machos realizan despliegues de cortejo en “escenarios” individuales cercanos los unos a los otros, mientras las hembras los visitan para escoger su pareja potencial. Estos despliegues representan una secuencia de movimientos fisiológicamente arduos, que incluyen saltos rápidos entre los palos o plantones del escenario. Nuestras observaciones de comportamiento nupcial y de las características de los escenarios de ocho machos sugieren que la estructura del escenario puede ser importante para cortejo: habían regularidades en distancias entre los palos de los escenarios de los machos que atrajeron hembras. Formulamos la hipótesis que la selección sexual realizada por las hembras favorece los machos con escenarios que proporcionan una plataforma óptima para sus despliegues de cortejo.

scholarly journals Reduced cooperative behavior as a cost of high testosterone in a lekking passerine bird

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben J Vernasco ◽  
Brent M Horton ◽  
Ignacio T Moore ◽  
T Brandt Ryder
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Observational Study ◽  
Courtship Behavior ◽  
Cooperative Behavior ◽  
Reproductive Traits ◽  
Passerine Bird ◽  
Courtship Display ◽  
Courtship Behaviors ◽  
Pipra Filicauda ◽  
Courtship Displays

Abstract Many studies have identified the reproductive benefits of cooperative behaviors, yet few have identified the mechanisms that underlie these behaviors. Mechanistic studies can inform our understanding of why some individuals are more or less cooperative, as well as identify the physiological constraints imposed upon the evolution of reproductive traits. Male wire-tailed manakins (Pipra filicauda) exhibit cooperative courtship behaviors and more cooperative territory holders have been shown to exhibit higher reproductive success. To begin to understand the proximate basis of cooperative display behaviors, we conducted both an observational study and an experimental study. Because coordinated courtship displays underlie this form of cooperation, our study also examined both the hormonal and social drivers of individual variation in courtship behavior more broadly (e.g., courtship display rates). Our observational study revealed that males with higher testosterone levels performed fewer cooperative display bouts. In addition, our experimental study demonstrated that the proportion of a male’s courtship displays that were cooperative decreased after being administered a testosterone-filled hormone implant. We found no relationship between an individual’s courtship display effort (i.e., display rate and time spent performing courtship displays) and circulating testosterone in either study. However, more cooperative males spent a greater proportion of time performing courtship displays than did less cooperative males, suggesting that testosterone may indirectly mediate courtship display behaviors by influencing a territory holder’s cooperative behavior. Overall, both our observational and experimental results suggest that reduced cooperative behavior is a cost of maintaining high levels of testosterone for territory-holding males.

SEXUAL SELECTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF DANCE FLY MATING SYSTEMS (DIPTERA: EMPIDIDAE; EMPIDINAE)

1994 ◽  
Vol 126 (3) ◽  
pp. 907-920 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.M. Cumming
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Courtship Behavior ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
Male Fitness ◽  
Male Choice ◽  
Nuptial Gifts ◽  
Sexual Selection Theory ◽  
Courtship Displays ◽  
Dance Fly

AbstractCourtship displays of empidine dance flies (Diptera: Empididae), which include transfers of nuptial gifts during mating, are reviewed in light of sexual selection theory. Sex-role reversed courtship behavior, involving female swarming and male choice, appears to be correlated with certain female secondary sexual characters that are widespread throughout the Empidinae. The tendency to shift mate choice from females to males, and the apparent development of autogeny in many empidine species, are both hypothesized to have resulted from males monopolizing the proteinaceous food source of non-hunting females, through transfers of nuptial gifts of prey. The autogenous condition appears to have led to the ritualized presentation of various types of inedible nuptial gifts by males of several species, possibly including the development of secreted nuptial gifts, or balloons, as displays of male fitness.

scholarly journals Physiological constraint on acrobatic courtship behavior underlies rapid sympatric speciation in bearded manakins

eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meredith C Miles ◽  
Franz Goller ◽  
Matthew J Fuxjager
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Courtship Behavior ◽  
Sympatric Speciation ◽  
Muscle Performance ◽  
Courtship Display ◽  
Motor Systems ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Species Radiation ◽  
Physiological Constraint ◽  
Instrumental Role

Physiology’s role in speciation is poorly understood. Motor systems, for example, are widely thought to shape this process because they can potentiate or constrain the evolution of key traits that help mediate speciation. Previously, we found that Neotropical manakin birds have evolved one of the fastest limb muscles on record to support innovations in acrobatic courtship display (Fuxjager et al., 2016a). Here, we show how this modification played an instrumental role in the sympatric speciation of a manakin genus, illustrating that muscle specializations fostered divergence in courtship display speed, which may generate assortative mating. However, innovations in contraction-relaxation cycling kinetics that underlie rapid muscle performance are also punctuated by a severe speed-endurance trade-off, blocking further exaggeration of display speed. Sexual selection therefore potentiated phenotypic displacement in a trait critical to mate choice, all during an extraordinarily fast species radiation—and in doing so, pushed muscle performance to a new boundary altogether.

Male courtship displays and vocal communication in the polygynous bat Carollia perspicillata

Behaviour ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 151 (6) ◽  
pp. 781-798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Knörnschild ◽  
Marion Feifel ◽  
Elisabeth K.V. Kalko
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Mate Recognition ◽  
Courtship Behaviour ◽  
Male Courtship ◽  
Courtship Display ◽  
Carollia Perspicillata ◽  
Fruit Bat ◽  
Distress Calls ◽  
Individual Signature ◽  
Courtship Displays

Male courtship behaviour towards choosy females often comprises elaborate displays that address multiple sensory channels. In bats, detailed quantitative descriptions of multimodal courtship displays are still fairly scarce, despite the taxon’s speciose nature. We studied male courtship behaviour in a polygynous Neotropical bat, Seba’s short-tailed fruit bat Carollia perspicillata, by monitoring harem males in a captive colony. Courting male C. perspicillata performed stereotypic tactile, visual and acoustic displays. A courtship sequence, directed at one female at a time, lasted up to 120 s. During courtship, males approached females by brachiating or flying, hovered in front of them, pursued them on the wing, sniffed them and repeatedly poked the females with one or both folded wings; the latter behaviour was the most conspicuous male courtship display. Immediately before copulation, males wrapped their wings around the females and bit their necks. As acoustic display, courting male C. perspicillata produced highly variable, monosyllabic courtship trills. The species’ vocal repertoire consisted of ten different social vocalisation types, three for benign interactions (courtship trills, wobbles, isolation calls), four for aggressive encounters (aggressive trills, down-sweeps, warbles, distress calls) and the remaining three for unknown behavioural contexts (V-shaped calls, flat down-sweeps, hooks). Courtship trills and aggressive trills were exclusively produced by males. We measured 245 courtship trills of five males and found statistical evidence for a strong individual signature which has the potential to facilitate female choice, mate recognition or neighbour–stranger recognition among male competitors.

scholarly journals Eavesdropping in crabs: an agency for lady detection

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 755-757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard N. C. Milner ◽  
Michael D. Jennions ◽  
Patricia R. Y. Backwell
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Female ◽  
Courtship Display ◽  
Fiddler Crabs ◽  
Visual Contact ◽  
Mate Searching ◽  
Courtship Displays

Although conspicuous courtship displays are an effective way of attracting the attention of receptive females, they could provide valuable information to rival males on the location of these females. In fiddler crabs, males that see a receptive female wave their single, greatly enlarged claw in a highly conspicuous courtship display. We test whether other males use this courtship display to alert them to the presence of receptive females that they cannot directly see. We show that male fiddler crabs ( Uca mjoebergi ) eavesdrop on the courtship displays of nearby males to detect mate-searching females. This allows males to begin waving before a female becomes visible. Furthermore, males appear to adjust their waving according to the information available: eavesdropping males wave 12 times faster than non-courting males but only 1.7 times slower than males in full visual contact with the female.

scholarly journals Sexual selection drives the evolution of wing interference patterns

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
MF Hawkes ◽  
E Duffy ◽  
R Joag ◽  
A Skeats ◽  
J Radwan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Digital Imaging ◽  
Colour Vision ◽  
Species Recognition ◽  
Sexual Attractiveness ◽  
Courtship Display ◽  
Structural Coloration ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Selection For ◽  
First Time

AbstractThe seemingly transparent wings of many insects have recently been found to display dramatic structural coloration. These structural colours (wing interference patterns: WIPs) may be involved in species recognition and mate choice, yet little is known about the evolutionary processes that shape them. Additionally, existing research has been restricted by analysing WIPs without due consideration of how they are actually perceived by the viewers’ colour vision. Here, we use multispectral digital imaging and a model ofDrosophilavision to compare WIPs of male and femaleDrosophila simulansfrom replicate populations forced to evolve with or without sexual selection for 68 generations. We show for the first time that WIPs modelled inDrosophilavision evolve in response to sexual selection, and confirm that WIPs correlate with male sexual attractiveness. These findings add a new element to the otherwise well describedDrosophilacourtship display and confirm that wing colours evolve through sexual selection.

scholarly journals Sexual selection drives the evolution of male wing interference patterns

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1903) ◽  
pp. 20182850 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. F. Hawkes ◽  
E. Duffy ◽  
R. Joag ◽  
A. Skeats ◽  
J. Radwan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Digital Imaging ◽  
Colour Vision ◽  
Species Recognition ◽  
Sexual Attractiveness ◽  
Courtship Display ◽  
Structural Coloration ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Male Wing ◽  
Selection For

The seemingly transparent wings of many insects have recently been found to display unexpected structural coloration. These structural colours (wing interference patterns: WIPs) may be involved in species recognition and mate choice, yet little is known about the evolutionary processes that shape them. Furthermore, to date investigations of WIPs have not fully considered how they are actually perceived by the viewers' colour vision. Here, we use multispectral digital imaging and a model of Drosophila vision to compare WIPs of male and female Drosophila simulans from replicate populations forced to evolve with or without sexual selection for 68 generations. We show that WIPs modelled in Drosophila vision evolve in response to sexual selection and provide evidence that WIPs correlate with male sexual attractiveness. These findings add a new element to the otherwise well-described Drosophila courtship display and confirm that wing colours evolve through sexual selection.

Courtship Display, Agonistic Behavior and Social Dynamics in the Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias Jubatus)

Behaviour ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 57 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 159-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Finn E. Sandegren
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Steller Sea Lion ◽  
Eumetopias Jubatus ◽  
Courtship Display ◽  
Sea Lion ◽  
Strong Response ◽  
Dominance Relations ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Pup Mortality ◽  
Courtship Displays

AbstractFemales of the Steller sea lion perform elaborate courtship displays in a period of about 15 days around the time when ovulation and copulation should occur. These displays are directed towards and strongly stimulate the males. The display is of a submissive nature but elements related to sexual, aggressive and take-off behavior are also involved. The most striking features of the display are when the female mounts, climbs over and bites different parts of the male's body, then rushes away and makes intention movements of departing to sea or crossing to another territory, normally eliciting a strong response from the male she is courting and intensive territorial activity among the surrounding males. Towards the end of the breeding season when the number of estrous females decreases the frequency of display among individual females increases. This is probably a response to declining territorial motivation among males. But as long as there are displaying females in the colony new males replace the departing ones. It is suggested that the display functions as a social releaser, primarily reinforcing territorial and sexual motivation among males. Also, the display through its influence on dominance relations could have a far reaching impact on, among other things, the stability of the male and female social structures and pup mortality.

scholarly journals Couples showing off: Audience promotes both male and female multimodal courtship display in a songbird

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. eaat4779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nao Ota ◽  
Manfred Gahr ◽  
Masayo Soma
Keyword(s):  
Animal Communication ◽  
Private Communication ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Audience Effect ◽  
Courtship Display ◽  
Mating Status ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Courtship Displays

Social environments can shape animal communication. Although mutual courtship displays are generally thought to function in private communication between a male and a female, we provide experimental evidence that they work in a broader social context than previously thought. We examined the audience effect on mutual courtship in blue-capped cordon-bleus, a socially monogamous songbird. This species is characterized by conspicuous courtship shared between sexes: Both sexes sing songs and sometimes add a unique dance display that looks like human tap dancing. We found that in both sexes, multimodal courtship displays (song accompanied by dance) were promoted in the presence of an audience, especially if it was the opposite sex. In contrast, unimodal displays (song without dance) were suppressed by audiences. Because birds directed the courtship dancing toward their partners (but not the audience), multimodal courtship displays are likely meant to advertise their current mating status to other cordon-bleus.

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