Female and Male Mate Choice

2021 ◽  
pp. 21-52
Author(s):  
Ingo Schlupp
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Female Choice ◽  
Complete Picture ◽  
Male Mate Choice ◽  
Indirect Benefits ◽  
Short Overview ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
Male Mate

Females choose mating partners for three main reasons: direct benefits, indirect benefits, and compatibility, either genetic or social. In this chapter I am not trying to look at all angles of mate choice, but to give a short overview of female choice to provide a basis for a comparison with male choice. This will highlight what studies are needed to reach a more complete picture of sexual selection. I would summarize the chapter like this: it’s the ecology, stupid.

What Males Choose: Differences in Female Quality

2021 ◽  
pp. 81-96
Author(s):  
Ingo Schlupp
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Female Choice ◽  
Male Mate Choice ◽  
Male Quality ◽  
Female Fecundity ◽  
Indirect Benefits ◽  
Female Quality ◽  
Male Mate

In female choice, differences in male quality are very important. Males display to females to provide information often via costly ornaments. Females also differ in quality, but what they display to males is less clear. Also, how males evaluate differences in female quality is not well understood. From the literature on male mate choice one might conclude that female fecundity is the most important feature a female can display to a choosy male, but I argue that there must be many more features of females that are important in male mate choice, maybe even indirect benefits.

Synthesis and Outlook

2021 ◽  
pp. 153-161
Author(s):  
Ingo Schlupp
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Sex Ratios ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Male Mate Choice ◽  
Female Ornamentation ◽  
Female Quality ◽  
Investment In Reproduction ◽  
Selection Research ◽  
Male Mate

In this final chapter I want to briefly recap what I presented in the previous chapters and provide a few ideas on what might be done in the future to move the field forward. All three factors I discussed as relevant in male mate choice—male investment in reproduction, sex ratios, and variability in partner quality—are still emerging fields in sexual selection research and need more theoretical and empirical work. I suggest that variability in female quality is more important and more complex than currently known. The same is true for sex ratios. On the other hand, I suggest that sheer investment in gametes may be a little less important than currently assumed. Most importantly we need to explore the interactions of these three pathways to male mate choice. Female competition and also female ornamentation are still somewhat enigmatic and both topics are likely to grow in importance for our understanding of sexual selection. I think considering male and female choice together, as well as female and male competition will ultimately provide a more complete picture of Darwinian sexual selection.

Male Investment and Male Choice

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.

scholarly journals Male mate choice, male quality, and the potential for sexual selection on female traits under polygyny

Evolution ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney L. Fitzpatrick ◽  
Maria R. Servedio
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Male Mate Choice ◽  
Male Quality ◽  
Male Mate

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

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingo Schlupp
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Female Competition ◽  
Male Mate Choice ◽  
Male Choice ◽  
Female Quality ◽  
Female Ornaments ◽  
Sexual Selection Theory ◽  
Male Mate

When Darwin first proposed sexual selection theory he suggested two mechanisms: competition among males and choice by females. There is no doubt that these mechanisms are immensely important, but their mirror images have been largely underappreciated so far. In fact, males choose as well and females compete. Males choose based on female quality, often selecting mating partners that are more fecund. But male choice is also associated with changes in the sex ratio of a population and males can be choosy when they are rare. Furthermore, males sometimes invest heavily into reproduction and that too can be associated with male choice. That females compete with another, although less often with open aggression, is another understudied phenomenon. Finally, we now know that females are often ornamented, but are these ornaments under sexual selection by males? This book tries to review what we know and point to what we don’t know while pointing out the connections between male mate choice and female competition for a more complete view of sexual selection.

scholarly journals The significant role of post-pairing male behavior on the evolution of male preferences and female traits

2022 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nan Lyu ◽  
D. Justin Yeh ◽  
Huw Lloyd ◽  
Yue-Hua Sun
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Male Mate Choice ◽  
Female Fecundity ◽  
Male Preference ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
Sexual Selection Theory ◽  
Mating Opportunities ◽  
Male Mate

AbstractExisting sexual selection theory postulates that a sufficiently large variation in female fecundity or other direct benefits are fundamental for generating male mate choice. In this study, we suggest that, in addition to pre-pairing preferences, choosy males can also have different post-pairing behaviors, a factor which has been comparatively overlooked by previous studies. We found that both male preferences and female traits could evolve much more easily than previously expected when the choosy males that paired with unpreferred females would allocate more efforts to seeking additional post-pairing mating opportunities. Furthermore, a costly female trait could evolve when there was a trade-off between seeking additional mating and paternal care investment within social pair for choosy males. Finally, a costly male preference and a costly female trait might still evolve and reach a stable polymorphic state in the population, which might give rise to a high variability in male choice and female traits in nature. We suggest that male mate choice may be even more common than expected, which needs to be verified empirically.

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