Male Mating Success: Preference or Prowess? Investigating Sexual Selection in the Laboratory Using Drosophila Melanogaster

2007 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
pp. 351-358
Author(s):  
Seth W. Coleman ◽  
Jeffrey S. Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mating Success ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Male Mating Success

scholarly journals Structure of sexual networks determines the operation of sexual selection

2017 ◽  
Vol 115 (1) ◽  
pp. E53-E61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant C. McDonald ◽  
Tommaso Pizzari
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mating Success ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Network Size ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Male Mating Success ◽  
Sexual Network ◽  
Bateman Gradient

Sexual selection is a fundamental evolutionary process but remains debated, particularly in the complexity of polyandrous populations where females mate with multiple males. This lack of resolution is partly because studies have largely ignored the structure of the sexual network, that is, the pattern of mate sharing. Here, we quantify what we call mating assortment with network analysis to specify explicitly the indirect as well as direct relationships between partners. We first review empirical studies, showing that mating assortment varies considerably in nature, due largely to basic properties of the sexual network (size and density) and partly to nonrandom patterns of mate sharing. We then use simulations to show how variation in mating assortment interacts with population-level polyandry to determine the strength of sexual selection on males. Controlling for average polyandry, positive mating assortment, arising when more polygynous males tend to mate with more polyandrous females, drastically decreases the intensity of precopulatory sexual selection on male mating success (Bateman gradient) and the covariance between male mating success and postcopulatory paternity share. Average polyandry independently weakened some measures of sexual selection and crucially also impacted sexual selection indirectly by constraining mating assortment through the saturation of the mating network. Mating assortment therefore represents a key—albeit overlooked—modulator of the strength of sexual selection. Our results show that jointly considering sexual network structure and average polyandry more precisely describes the strength of sexual selection.

scholarly journals Sexual selection in a moth: effect of symmetry on male mating success in the wild

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 571-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiharu Koshio ◽  
Makoto Muraji ◽  
Haruki Tatsuta ◽  
Shin-ichi Kudo
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mating Success ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Male Mating Success ◽  
In The Wild

scholarly journals Sexual selection in honey bees: colony variation and the importance of size in male mating success

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 520-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret J. Couvillon ◽  
William O.H. Hughes ◽  
Juan A. Perez-Sato ◽  
Stephen J. Martin ◽  
Gabrielle G.F. Roy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mating Success ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Male Mating Success

scholarly journals Limited genetic variation for male mating success reveals low evolutionary potential for thermal plasticity in Drosophila melanogaster

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Waller ◽  
Anna Kell ◽  
Mireia Ballesta ◽  
Aude Giraud ◽  
Jessica K. Abbott ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Heating Rate ◽  
Mating Success ◽  
Statistical Power ◽  
Thermal Reaction ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Male Mating Success ◽  
Evolutionary Potential ◽  
Thermal Plasticity

AbstractPopulations respond to novel environmental challenges either through genetic changes, through adaptive phenotypic plasticity for the traits in question, or by a combination of these factors. Here, we investigated the evolutionary potential of phenotypic plasticity for male mating success, locomotory ability, and heating rate (a physiological performance trait) in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, using isogenic male lines from the Drosophila Reference Genome Panel (DGRP) and hemi-clonal males. We quantified thermal reaction norms of how male mating success changed in relation to a temperate gradient, ranging from cold (18 °C) via optimal (24 °C) to hot and stressful environments (either 30 °C or 36 °C). We found significant differences in male mating success and locomotory performance between different lines, as well as significant main effects of temperature, but no significant genotype-by-environment interactions (GEI:s). A statistical power analysis revealed that the variance explained by GEI:s for thermal plasticity using this sample size is likely to be modest or very small, and represent only 4% of the total variation in male mating success. The lack of strong GEI:s for these two behavioral traits contrast with the presence of significant GEI:s for male heating rate, as measured by thermal imaging (infrared camera technology). These results suggest that sexual selection through male mating success is not likely to be efficient in mediating evolutionary rescue through changed plasticity in response to changing temperatures.

scholarly journals Increased male mating success in the presence of prey and rivals in a sexually cannibalistic mantis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan William Burke ◽  
Gregory I Holwell
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mating Success ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Intrasexual Competition ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Sexual Cannibalism ◽  
Male Mating Success ◽  
Male Courtship ◽  
Male Preference ◽  
The Face

Pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism, or cannibalism without mating, is expected to promote the evolution of male strategies that enhance mating success and reduce the risk of cannibalism, such as preferential mating with feeding females. However, sexual selection on male competitiveness may alter male courtship decisions in the face of cannibalism risk. We investigated the effect of prey availability and rival presence on male mating decisions in the highly cannibalistic Springbok mantis, Miomantis caffra. We found that males approached females more rapidly and mated more often in the presence of prey, suggesting that females distracted with foraging may be less of a threat. The presence of a rival also hastened the onset of copulation and led to higher mating success, with very large effects occurring in the presence of both prey and rivals, indicating that intrasexual competition may intensify attraction to foraging females. Taken together, our results suggest that pre-copulatory cannibalism has selected for male preference for foraging females, and that males adjust their mating strategy to both the risk of competition and the threat of cannibalism.

scholarly journals A cis-regulatory Sequence Within the yellow Locus of Drosophila melanogaster Required for Normal Male Mating Success

Genetics ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 172 (2) ◽  
pp. 1009-1030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark David Drapeau ◽  
Shawn A. Cyran ◽  
Michaela M. Viering ◽  
Pamela K. Geyer ◽  
Anthony D. Long
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Mating Success ◽  
Normal Male ◽  
Regulatory Sequence ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Male Mating Success
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