Parental Care and Mate Choice in the Giant Water BugBelostoma lutarium

Ethology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 121 (10) ◽  
pp. 1018-1029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patsy Thrasher ◽  
Elijah Reyes ◽  
Hope Klug
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Parental Care

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.

Mate choice copying in two species of darters (Percidae: Etheostoma)

Behaviour ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 150 (11) ◽  
pp. 1255-1274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel L. Moran ◽  
Carl N. von Ende ◽  
Bethia H. King
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Nest Site ◽  
Etheostoma Flabellare ◽  
Mate Choice Copying ◽  
Filamentous Green Algae ◽  
The One ◽  
Taxonomic Groups ◽  
The Relationship

Mate choice copying is a form of social learning that is defined as the increased likelihood of an individual choosing a particular mate after observing another individual choosing that mate. Mate choice copying has been demonstrated in a range of taxonomic groups, but not usually for both sexes. Mate choice copying experiments were performed here using two congeneric sympatric darters, Etheostoma flabellare and E. zonale. In E. flabellare, males guard a nest site under a rock and care for developing eggs. In E. zonale, eggs are attached to filamentous green algae and neither sex provides parental care. Our results provide the first evidence that mate choice copying occurs in darters. Previously it was hypothesised that copying might be more common in species and sexes that provide parental care, the reasoning being that the costs of choosing poorly may be higher. However, mate choice copying was found in both sexes of E. zonale (no parental care) and in male but not female E. flabellare (male only parental care). Thus, the only group that did not mate choice copy was the one whose mate would be providing care, and even E. flabellare females copy the mate choice of other females by some definitions. The relationship, if any, between which sex provides parental care and whether copying occurs remains unclear, and the number of species for which such data are available is limited.

Mating system, mate choice and parental care in a bark beetle

2017 ◽  
Vol 107 (5) ◽  
pp. 611-619 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Baruch ◽  
Z. Mendel ◽  
I. Scharf ◽  
A. R Harari
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Mating System ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Bark Beetle ◽  
Biparental Care ◽  
Male Body ◽  
Male Body Size

AbstractThe cypress bark beetle,Phloeosinus armatus, is a common element of the dying cypress tree system in East-Mediterranean countries. Adult beetles congregate for breeding on this ephemeral resource. We studied three traits that characterize this beetle's sexual behavior and linked them to its reproductive success: mating system, mate choice, and parental care. We found that the females are the ‘pioneering sex’, excavating the mating chamber. The average female is slightly larger than the male, and female and male body size is correlated, demonstrating size-assortative mating. The time it takes for a male to enter the mating chamber is positively correlated with female size and negatively correlated with its own size, which is perhaps responsible for this assortative mating. Males remain in the gallery during the period of oviposition, gradually leaving soon after the eggs hatch. The number of eggs laid and tunnel length are positively correlated with male body size. Finally, in the presence of both parents, more eggs are laid than when the female alone is present, demonstrating the important contribution of biparental care for reproductive success. We suggest that the interaction between a monogamous mating system, assortative mating, and biparental care contributes to reproductive success.

scholarly journals Lonely hearts or sex in the city? Density-dependent effects in mating systems

2006 ◽  
Vol 361 (1466) ◽  
pp. 319-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Kokko ◽  
Daniel J Rankin
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
Mate Guarding ◽  
Mating Strategies ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Density Dependent ◽  
Basic Ideas

Two very basic ideas in sexual selection are heavily influenced by numbers of potential mates: the evolution of anisogamy, leading to sex role differentiation, and the frequency dependence of reproductive success that tends to equalize primary sex ratios. However, being explicit about the numbers of potential mates is not typical to most evolutionary theory of sexual selection. Here, we argue that this may prevent us from finding the appropriate ecological equilibria that determine the evolutionary endpoints of selection. We review both theoretical and empirical advances on how population density may influence aspects of mating systems such as intrasexual competition, female choice or resistance, and parental care. Density can have strong effects on selective pressures, whether or not there is phenotypic plasticity in individual strategies with respect to density. Mating skew may either increase or decrease with density, which may be aided or counteracted by changes in female behaviour. Switchpoints between alternative mating strategies can be density dependent, and mate encounter rates may influence mate choice (including mutual mate choice), multiple mating, female resistance to male mating attempts, mate searching, mate guarding, parental care, and the probability of divorce. Considering density-dependent selection may be essential for understanding how populations can persist at all despite sexual conflict, but simple models seem to fail to predict the diversity of observed responses in nature. This highlights the importance of considering the interaction between mating systems and population dynamics, and we strongly encourage further work in this area.

Fertilization mode, sperm characteristics, mate choice and parental care patterns in Artedius spp. (Cottidae)

2005 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. W. Petersen ◽  
C. Mazzoldi ◽  
K. A. Zarrella ◽  
R. E. Hale
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Sperm Characteristics ◽  
Care Patterns

scholarly journals Why is mutual mate choice not the norm? Operational sex ratios, sex roles and the evolution of sexually dimorphic and monomorphic signalling

2002 ◽  
Vol 357 (1419) ◽  
pp. 319-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Kokko ◽  
R. A. Johnstone
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Parental Investment ◽  
Sex Roles ◽  
Mating Strategies ◽  
Operational Sex Ratio ◽  
Encounter Rate ◽  
Theoretic Model ◽  
Biparental Care ◽  
Mutual Mate Choice

Biases in the operational sex ratio (OSR) are seen as the fundamental reason behind differential competition for mates in the two sexes, and as a strong determinant behind differences in choosiness. This view has been challenged by Kokko and Monaghan, who argue that sex–specific parental investment, mortalities, mate–encounter rates and quality variation determine the mating system in a way that is not reducible to the OSR. We develop a game–theoretic model of choosiness, signalling and parental care, to examine (i) whether the results of Kokko and Monaghan remain robust when its simplifying assumptions are relaxed, (ii) how parental care coevolves with mating strategies and the OSR and (iii) why mutual mate choice is observed relatively rarely even when both sexes vary in quality. We find qualitative agreement with the simpler approach: parental investment is the primary determinant of sex roles instead of the OSR, and factors promoting choosiness are high species–specific mate–encounter rate, high sex–specific mate–encounter rate, high cost of breeding (parental investment), low cost of mate searching and highly variable quality of the opposite sex. The coevolution of parental care and mating strategies hinders mutual mate choice if one parent can compensate for reduced care by the other, but promotes it if offspring survival depends greatly on biparental care. We argue that the relative rarity of mutual mate choice is not due to biases in the OSR. Instead, we describe processes by which sexual strategies tend to diverge. This divergence is prevented, and mutual mate choice maintained, if synergistic benefits of biparental care render parental investment both high and not too different in the two sexes.

scholarly journals Sexual selection of male parental care in giant water bugs

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 150720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shin-ya Ohba ◽  
Noboru Okuda ◽  
Shin-ichi Kudo
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Female Mate Preference ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Water Bugs ◽  
Selection Of

Paternal care can be maintained under sexual selection, if it helps in attracting more mates. We tested the hypothesis in two giant water bug species, Appasus major and Appasus japonicus , that male parental care is sexually selected through female preference for caring males. Females were given an opportunity to choose between two males. In the first test of female mate choice, one male carried eggs on its back, while the other did not. The egg status was switched between these two males in the second test. The experiment revealed that females of both species preferred caring males (i.e. egg-bearing) to non-caring males. Nonetheless, the female mate preference for egg-bearing males was stronger in A. major than in A. japonicus . Our results suggest that sexual selection plays an important role in maintaining elaborate paternal care in giant water bugs, but the importance of egg-bearing by males in female mate choice varies among species.

scholarly journals The biology of human sexuality: evolution, ecology and physiology

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 245-264
Author(s):  
PW Bateman ◽  
NC Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Sexual Behaviour ◽  
Social Influences ◽  
Human Sexuality ◽  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Selective Pressures ◽  
The Past ◽  
Biological Approach ◽  
Ecological Features

Many evolutionary biologists argue that human sexual behaviour can be studied in exactly the same way as that of other species. Many sociologists argue that social influences effectively obscure, and are more important than, a reductionist biological approach to human sexual behaviour. Here,we authors attempt to provide a broad introduction to human sexual behaviour from a biological standpoint and to indicate where the ambiguous areas are. We outline the evolutionary selective pressures that are likely to have influenced human behaviour and mate choice in the past and in the present; ecological features that influence such things as degree of parental care and polygamy; and the associated physiology of human sexuality. Then they end with a discussion of ‘abnormal’ sexuality.

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