Sexual selection in flies: a comparison of Drosophila simulans and D. melanogaster

2009 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 391-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hosken ◽  
Michelle Taylor ◽  
Manmohan Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Sibling Species ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Drosophila Simulans ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Female Fitness ◽  
Fitness Consequences

AbstractThe traditional view of sexual selection via female mate choice is that female preference for certain males either has no net fitness cost or is beneficial to overall female fitness. A more contemporary view is that preferred males can at times reduce female fitness. This view has arisen from the realisation that conflict between the sexes is an inevitable feature of sexual reproduction, as each sex necessarily has a different agenda for maximizing fitness. Despite the hailing of sexual conflict as a paradigm shift and its prevalence in the recent sexual selection literature, compelling evidence that attractive males reduce female fitness remains taxonomically restricted. Here we review the findings of a series of investigations into the fitness consequences of female preference in the fly Drosophila simulans and compare them with its sibling species, D. melanogaster. We show that there are stark differences in the fitness consequences of mating with preferred males in the two species and discuss this contrast with reference to the current debates in the sexual selection literature.

Sexual Selection and Sexual Conflict in Crustaceans

2020 ◽  
pp. 305-331
Author(s):  
Rickey Cothran
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Sensory System ◽  
Mate Guarding ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Sensory Structures ◽  
Context Shapes

Research using crustaceans has improved the understanding of sexual selection and sexual conflict. This is particularly true for understanding the biology of male weaponry and sexual conflict over mate guarding. Male crustaceans often are equipped with exaggerated claws that they use to monopolize access to females or resources that females use for reproduction. However, these weapons are often used in other contexts, e.g. mate choice and coercion of females, and understanding their evolution requires a broader perspective of how these traits are built and the fitness consequences of their use for both the bearer and interacting individuals. Although less well studied than male weaponry, crustaceans also provide excellent examples of elaborate sensory structures that are used in scramble competition among males for females. In addition to studies on male-male competition, crustaceans have been well represented in research on intrasexual selection (for the most part, female mate choice). Crustacean females use a variety of sensory channels to assess mates, and a challenge is to better understand what is being conveyed by signaling males and the fitness consequences of mate choice for females. In some cases the female’s sensory system appears to be exploited by males, and this could lead to sexual conflict over mating. Research on crustaceans has also informed the understanding of sexual conflict over mate guarding, including the evolution of traits used to resolve conflict and how the ecological context shapes the costs and benefits of guarding for both sexes.

Female Choice in the Midwife Toads (Alytes Obstetricans and a. Cisternasii)

Behaviour ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 132 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 151-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Márquez
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Hatching Success ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Dominant Frequency ◽  
Female Fitness ◽  
Significant Preference ◽  
Male Size ◽  
Low Frequencies ◽  
Behavioural Mechanism ◽  
Alytes Obstetricans

AbstractA previous study reported that large males had greater mating success than small males in two species of midwife toads. A behavioural mechanism that would explain such a pattern is sought. Dominant frequency is inversely correlated with male size in Alytes obstetricans and A. cisternasii. In both cases, two-speaker playback tests with synthetic calls show that females have a significant preference for calls with low frequencies. The results shows that female preference may impose directional sexual selection upon a static acoustic character that is correlated with male size. Male Alytes tend their eggs on land, but male size is not correlated with hatching success. Therefore female preference for larger males does not appear to directly increase female fitness.

scholarly journals Sexual conflict over mating in Gnatocerus cornutus ? Females prefer lovers not fighters

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1785) ◽  
pp. 20140281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kensuke Okada ◽  
Masako Katsuki ◽  
Manmohan D. Sharma ◽  
Clarissa M. House ◽  
David J. Hosken
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Female Choice ◽  
Indirect Costs ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Male Competition ◽  
Female Fitness ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Horned Beetle

Female mate choice and male–male competition are the typical mechanisms of sexual selection. However, these two mechanisms do not always favour the same males. Furthermore, it has recently become clear that female choice can sometimes benefit males that reduce female fitness. So whether male–male competition and female choice favour the same or different males, and whether or not females benefit from mate choice, remain open questions. In the horned beetle, Gnatocerus cornutus, males have enlarged mandibles used to fight rivals, and larger mandibles provide a mating advantage when there is direct male–male competition for mates. However, it is not clear whether females prefer these highly competitive males. Here, we show that female choice targets male courtship rather than mandible size, and these two characters are not phenotypically or genetically correlated. Mating with attractive, highly courting males provided indirect benefits to females but only via the heritability of male attractiveness. However, mating with attractive males avoids the indirect costs to daughters that are generated by mating with competitive males. Our results suggest that male–male competition may constrain female mate choice, possibly reducing female fitness and generating sexual conflict over mating.

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.

Context-dependent female mate preferences in leaf-footed cactus bugs

Behaviour ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 151 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karla M. Addesso ◽  
Katherine A. Short ◽  
Allen J. Moore ◽  
Christine W. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Seasonal Changes ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Opuntia Humifusa ◽  
Context Dependent

Female mate preferences can shape sexual selection and evolution. Thus, it is important to understand the factors that affect mating decisions. Here, we examine context-dependent mate preferences in the leaf-footed cactus bug, Narnia femorata Stål (Hemiptera: Coreidae), a species that experiences distinct seasonal changes and spatial variation in the quality of their food, cactus. Previous work has shown that cactus with fruit is a superior resource for these insects, however they must sometimes develop, mate, and reproduce without cactus fruit. We reared males on Opuntia humifusa (Raf.) (Cactaceae) cactus pads with and without cactus fruit. We found that females preferred the odour of males that had developed on cactus fruit over males that developed only on cactus pads. However, the current cactus context also affected female preference. Females were more likely to choose males that developed with cactus fruit when cactus fruit was currently available. Our results suggest that natural fluctuations in resource availability during development and adulthood may result in fluctuations in the strength of sexual selection via female mate choice.

scholarly journals Does divergence in female mate choice affect male size distributions in two cave fish populations?

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 452-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Tobler ◽  
Ingo Schlupp ◽  
Martin Plath
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Body Size ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Female Choice ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Large Male ◽  
Male Body ◽  
Male Size ◽  
Female Mate

Sexual selection by female choice can maintain male traits that are counter selected by natural selection. Alteration of the potential for sexual selection can thus lead to shifts in the expression of male traits. We investigated female mate choice for large male body size in a fish ( Poecilia mexicana ) that, besides surface streams, also inhabits two caves. All four populations investigated, exhibited an ancestral visual preference for large males. However, only one of the cave populations also expressed this female preference in darkness. Hence, the lack of expression of female preference in darkness in the other cave population leads to relaxation of sexual selection for large male body size. While P. mexicana populations with size-specific female mate choice are characterized by a pronounced male size variation, the absence of female choice in one cave coincides with the absence of large bodied males in that population. Our results suggest that population differences in the potential for sexual selection may affect male trait variation.

Sexual selection and female fitness in Drosophila simulans

2007 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 721-728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle L. Taylor ◽  
Nina Wedell ◽  
David J. Hosken
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Drosophila Simulans ◽  
Female Fitness

scholarly journals Looking for sexual selection in the female brain

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1600) ◽  
pp. 2348-2356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly E. Cummings
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Choice Behaviour ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Preference Responses ◽  
Preference Behaviour

Female mate choice behaviour has significant evolutionary consequences, yet its mechanistic origins are not fully understood. Recent studies of female sensory systems have made great strides in identifying internal mechanisms governing female preferences. Only recently, however, have we begun to identify the dynamic genomic response associated with mate choice behaviour. Poeciliids provide a powerful comparative system to examine genomic responses governing mate choice and female preference behaviour, given the great range of mating systems: from female mate choice taxa with ornamental courting males to species lacking male ornamentation and exhibiting only male coercion. Furthermore, they exhibit laboratory-tractable preference responses without sexual contact that are decoupled from reproductive state, allowing investigators to isolate mechanisms in the brain without physiological confounds. Early investigations with poeciliid species ( Xiphophorus nigrensis and Gambusia affinis ) have identified putative candidate genes associated with female preference response and highlight a possible genomic pathway underlying female social interactions with males linked functionally with synaptic plasticity and learning processes. This network is positively correlated with female preference behaviour in the female mate choice species, but appears inhibited in the male coercive species. This behavioural genomics approach provides opportunity to elucidate the fundamental building blocks, and evolutionary dynamics, of sexual selection.

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