Sex Roles and Mutual Mate Choice Matter during Mate Sampling

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.

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Mutual mate choice: when it pays both sexes to avoid inbreeding.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.1124327.617459 ◽

2009 ◽

Author(s):

Martin Giurfa

Keyword(s):

Mate Choice ◽

Mutual Mate Choice

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Mutual Mate Choice for Colorful Traits in King Penguins

Ethology ◽

10.1111/j.1439-0310.2010.01775.x ◽

2010 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Paul M. Nolan ◽

F. Stephen Dobson ◽

Marion Nicolaus ◽

Tim J. Karels ◽

Kevin J. McGraw ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mate Choice ◽

Mutual Mate Choice

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Heightened condition dependent expression of structural colouration in the faces, but not wings, of male and female flies

Current Zoology ◽

10.1093/cz/zoab087 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Thomas E White ◽

Amy Locke ◽

Tanya Latty

Keyword(s):

Mate Choice ◽

Condition Dependence ◽

Sexually Dimorphic ◽

Male And Female ◽

Honest Signals ◽

Mutual Mate Choice ◽

Close Range ◽

Males And Females ◽

Structural Colouration

Abstract Structurally coloured sexual signals are a conspicuous and widespread class of ornament used in mate choice, though the extent to which they encode information on the quality of their bearers is not fully resolved. Theory predicts that signalling traits under strong sexual selection as honest indicators should evolve to be more developmentally integrated and exaggerated than nonsexual traits, thereby leading to heightened condition dependence. Here we test this prediction through examination of the sexually dimorphic faces and wings of the cursorial fly Lispe cana. Males and females possess structural UV-white and golden faces, respectively, and males present their faces and wings to females during close-range, ground-based courtship displays, thereby creating the opportunity for mutual inspection. Across a field-collected sample of individuals, we found that the appearance of the faces of both sexes scaled positively with individual condition, though along separate axes. Males in better condition expressed brighter faces as modelled according to conspecific flies, whereas condition scaled with facial saturation in females. We found no such relationships for their wing interference pattern nor abdomens, with the latter included as a nonsexual control. Our results suggest that the structurally coloured faces, but not the iridescent wings, of male and female Lispe cana are reliable guides to individual quality and support the broader potential for structural colours as honest signals. They also highlight the potential for mutual mate choice in this system, while arguing for one of several alternate signalling roles for wing interferences patterns among the myriad taxa which bear them.

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Mate Choice, Sex Roles and Sexual Cognition in Vertebrates: Mate Choice Turns Cognition or Cognition Turns Mate Choice?

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution ◽

10.3389/fevo.2021.749495 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Theodora Fuss

Keyword(s):

Sexual Selection ◽

Mate Choice ◽

Mating System ◽

Cognitive Abilities ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Sex Roles ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Antipredator Behavior ◽

Energy Levels ◽

Problem Solver

The idea of “smart is sexy,” meaning superior cognition provides competitive benefits in mate choice and, therefore, evolutionary advantages in terms of reproductive fitness, is both exciting and captivating. Cognitively flexible individuals perceive and adapt more dynamically to (unpredictable) environmental changes. The sex roles that females and males adopt within their populations can vary greatly in response to the prevalent mating system. Based on how cognition determines these grossly divergent sex roles, different selection pressures could possibly shape the (progressive) evolution of cognitive abilities, suggesting the potential to induce sexual dimorphisms in superior cognitive abilities. Associations between an individual’s mating success, sexual traits and its cognitive abilities have been found consistently across vertebrate species and taxa, providing evidence that sexual selection may well shape the supporting cognitive prerequisites. Yet, while superior cognitive abilities provide benefits such as higher feeding success, improved antipredator behavior, or more favorable mate choice, they also claim costs such as higher energy levels and metabolic rates, which in turn may reduce fecundity, growth, or immune response. There is compelling evidence in a variety of vertebrate taxa that females appear to prefer skilled problem-solver males, i.e., they prefer those that appear to have better cognitive abilities. Consequently, cognition is also likely to have substantial effects on sexual selection processes. How the choosing sex assesses the cognitive abilities of potential mates has not been explored conclusively yet. Do cognitive skills guide an individual’s mate choice and does learning change an individual’s mate choice decisions? How and to which extent do individuals use their own cognitive skills to assess those of their conspecifics when choosing a mate? How does an individual’s role within a mating system influence the choice of the choosing sex in this context? Drawing on several examples from the vertebrate world, this review aims to elucidate various aspects associated with cognitive sex differences, the different roles of males and females in social and sexual interactions, and the potential influence of cognition on mate choice decisions. Finally, future perspectives aim to identify ways to answer the central question of how the triad of sex, cognition, and mate choice interacts.

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Mutual Mate Choice

Mate Choice ◽

10.2307/j.ctt1vwmhb0.11 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 201-227

Keyword(s):

Mate Choice ◽

Mutual Mate Choice

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4. Sex roles and stereotypes

Sexual Selection: A Very Short Introduction ◽

10.1093/actrade/9780198778752.003.0004 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 52-68

Author(s):

Leigh W. Simmons

Keyword(s):

Sexual Selection ◽

Mate Choice ◽

Sexual Behaviour ◽

Sex Roles ◽

Animal Species ◽

Male And Female ◽

Mating Competition ◽

Characteristic Behaviour ◽

Males And Females ◽

Female Roles

‘Sex roles and stereotypes’ examines the notion, implicit in many of the original ideas about sexual selection, that males and females have natural ‘roles’ with characteristic behaviour associated with each sex. It also explores further the reasons behind deviations from the ‘typical’ sex roles in mate choice and in mating competition. Are there ‘standard’ male and female roles in both humans and other animal species? One version of sex roles holds that males are generally dominant and females submissive, stemming from the way that sexual selection favours different behaviours in each sex. This could mean that sexual selection dictates particular behaviours in males and females. But in fact, sexual behaviour is extraordinarily varied in nature.

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Male Investment and Male Choice

Male Choice, Female Competition, and Female Ornaments in Sexual Selection ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198818946.003.0005 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 97-108

Author(s):

Ingo Schlupp

Keyword(s):

Mate Choice ◽

Sex Roles ◽

Male Mate Choice ◽

Male Choice ◽

Male Investment ◽

Female Investment ◽

Male Mate

In this short chapter I revisit the role that male investment might play in the evolution of male mate choice. Simply put, one might expect with more male investment into reproduction, they may be more selective about with whom they mate. If the male investment is larger than the female investment sex roles are expected to flip. This is, however, not common. But even if males almost never invest as much or more than females, in many species they do invest somewhat, or even heavily. Should this lead to choosiness in males? I will provide a few examples where choosiness may be linked to investment in males.

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Coevolution of male and female mate choice can destabilize reproductive isolation

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/s41467-019-12860-9 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Thomas G. Aubier ◽

Hanna Kokko ◽

Mathieu Joron

Keyword(s):

Mate Choice ◽

Reproductive Isolation ◽

Female Mate Choice ◽

Male Mate Choice ◽

Premating Isolation ◽

Male And Female ◽

Female Mate ◽

Female Preferences ◽

Mutual Mate Choice ◽

Male Mate

Abstract Sexual interactions play an important role in the evolution of reproductive isolation, with important consequences for speciation. Theoretical studies have focused on the evolution of mate preferences in each sex separately. However, mounting empirical evidence suggests that premating isolation often involves mutual mate choice. Here, using a population genetic model, we investigate how female and male mate choice coevolve under a phenotype matching rule and how this affects reproductive isolation. We show that the evolution of female preferences increases the mating success of males with reciprocal preferences, favouring mutual mate choice. However, the evolution of male preferences weakens indirect selection on female preferences and, with weak genetic drift, the coevolution of female and male mate choice leads to periodic episodes of random mating with increased hybridization (deterministic ‘preference cycling’ triggered by stochasticity). Thus, counterintuitively, the process of establishing premating isolation proves rather fragile if both male and female mate choice contribute to assortative mating.

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