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Directional Sexual Selection (directional + sexual_selection)
Selected AbstractsOperational sex ratio, sexual conflict and the intensity of sexual selectionECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 5 2008Patrick S. Fitze Abstract Modern sexual selection theory indicates that reproductive costs rather than the operational sex ratio predict the intensity of sexual selection. We investigated sexual selection in the polygynandrous common lizard Lacerta vivipara. This species shows male aggression, causing high mating costs for females when adult sex ratios (ASR) are male-biased. We manipulated ASR in 12 experimental populations and quantified the intensity of sexual selection based on the relationship between reproductive success and body size. In sharp contrast to classical sexual selection theory predictions, positive directional sexual selection on male size was stronger and positive directional selection on female size weaker in female-biased populations than in male-biased populations. Thus, consistent with modern theory, directional sexual selection on male size was weaker in populations with higher female mating costs. This suggests that the costs of breeding, but not the operational sex ratio, correctly predicted the strength of sexual selection. [source] Toward a New Sexual Selection Paradigm: Polyandry, Conflict and Incompatibility (Invited Article)ETHOLOGY, Issue 12 2003Jeanne A. Zeh Darwin's recognition that male,male competition and female choice could favor the evolution of exaggerated male traits detrimental to survival set the stage for more than a century of theoretical and empirical work on sexual selection. While this Darwinian paradigm represents one of the most profound insights in biology, its preoccupation with sexual selection as a directional evolutionary force acting on males has diverted attention away from the selective processes acting on females. Our understanding of female reproduction has been further confounded by discreet female mating tactics that have perpetuated the illusion of the monogamous female and masked the potential for conflict between the sexes. With advances in molecular techniques leading to the discovery that polyandry is a pervasive mating strategy, recognition of these shortcomings has brought the study of sexual selection to its current state of flux. In this paper, we suggest that progress in two key areas is critical to formulation of a more inclusive, sexual selection paradigm that adequately incorporates selection from the female perspective. First, we need to develop a better understanding of male × female and maternal × paternal genome interactions and the role that polyandry plays in providing females with non-additive genetic benefits such as incompatibility avoidance. Consideration of these interaction effects influencing natural selection on females is important because they can complicate and even undermine directional sexual selection on males. Secondly, because antagonistic coevolution maintains a balance between opposing sides that obscures the conflict itself, many more experimental evolution studies and interventionist investigations (e.g. gene knockouts) are needed to tease apart male manipulative adaptations and female counter-adaptations. It seems evident that the divisiveness and controversy that has plagued sexual selection theory since Darwin first proposed the idea has often stalled progress in this important field of evolutionary biology. What is now needed is a more pluralistic and integrative approach that considers natural as well as sexual selection acting on females, incorporates multiple sexual selection mechanisms, and exploits advances in physiology and molecular biology to understand the mechanisms through which males and females achieve reproductive success. [source] SONG LEARNING ACCELERATES ALLOPATRIC SPECIATIONEVOLUTION, Issue 9 2004R. F. Lachlan Abstract The songs of many birds are unusual in that they serve a role in identifying conspecific mates, yet they are also culturally transmitted. Noting the apparently high rate of diversity in one avian taxon, the songbirds, in which song learning appears ubiquitous, it has often been speculated that cultural transmission may increase the rate of speciation. Here we examine the possibility that song learning affects the rate of allopatric speciation. We construct a population-genetic model of allopatric divergence that explores the evolution of genes that underlie learning preferences (predispositions to learn some songs over others). We compare this with a model in which mating signals are inherited only genetically. Models are constructed for the cases where songs and preferences are affected by the same or different loci, and we analyze them using analytical local stability analysis combined with simulations of drift and directional sexual selection. Under nearly all conditions examined, song divergence occurs more readily in the learning model than in the nonlearning model. This is a result of reduced frequency-dependent selection in the learning models. Cultural evolution causes males with unusual genotypes to tend to learn from the majority of males around them, and thus develop songs compatible with the majority of the females in the population. Unusual genotypes can therefore be masked by learning. Over a wide range of conditions, learning therefore reduces the waiting time for speciation to occur and can be predicted to accelerate the rate of speciation. [source] Sexually selected behaviour: red squirrel males search for reproductive successJOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Jeffrey E. Lane Summary 1Differential male reproductive success is commonplace in mammals and frequently attributed to variation in morphological traits that provide individuals with a competitive advantage in female defence mating systems. Other mammalian mating systems, however, have received comparatively little attention and correlates of male reproductive success in them are less well understood. 2We studied a free-ranging population of North American red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus Erxleben) exhibiting year-round individual territoriality. Males must temporarily vacate their territories to locate spatially dispersed receptive females, thereby setting the stage for a scramble competition mating system. 3We predicted that both male annual mating success (measured as the number of females copulated with) and annual reproductive success (measured as the number of offspring sired) would be positively correlated with both search ability (measured as the number of oestrous females located over the mating season) and effort (measured as mating season home range size), generating directional sexual selection on these two metrics. 4Mating season home ranges of males showed, on average, an almost 10-fold increase relative to those measured during the nonmating season, while those of females showed a more moderate twofold increase and both annual mating and reproductive success of males was positively correlated with search ability and search effort. 5The spatial dispersion of females, resulting from the strict territorial social structure of red squirrels, gave rise to a predicted scramble competition mating system. Furthermore, the strength of sexual selection on behavioural traits in this mating system equalled previous estimates for morphological traits in female defence mating systems. [source] Male choice generates stabilizing sexual selection on a female fecundity correlateJOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 5 2007S. F. CHENOWETH Abstract We know very little about male mating preferences and how they influence the evolution of female traits. Theory predicts that males may benefit from choosing females on the basis of traits that indicate their fecundity. Here, we explore sexual selection generated by male choice on two components of female body size (wing length and body mass) in Drosophila serrata. Using a dietary manipulation to alter female size and 828 male mate choice trials, we analysed linear and nonlinear sexual selection gradients on female mass and wing length. In contrast to theoretical expectations and prevailing empirical data, males exerted stabilizing rather than directional sexual selection on female body mass, a correlate of fecundity. Sexual selection was detected only among females with access to standard resource levels as an adult, with no evidence for sexual selection among resource-depleted females. Thus the mating success of females with the same body mass differed depending upon their access to resources as an adult. This suggests that males in this species may rely on signal traits to assess body mass rather than assessing it directly. Stabilizing rather than directional sexual selection on body mass together with recent evidence for stabilizing sexual selection on candidate signal traits in this species suggests that females may trade-off resources allocated to reproduction and sexual signalling. [source] Sexual dimorphism in chelicerae size in three species of nuptial-gift spiders: a discussion of possible functions and driving selective forcesJOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY, Issue 3 2008L. E. Costa-Schmidt Abstract Positive allometric patterns observed for intersexual signalling characters are related to directional sexual selection, and supported by theoretical and empirical data. Recent models have shown that positive allometry may not hold as a rule if the influence of natural selection is added to the model. Here we tested these models applying traditional morphometrical techniques for the analysis of chelicerae sexual dimorphism and allometric patterns within the genus Paratrechalea: Paratrechalea azul, Paratrechalea galianoae and Paratrechalea ornata. Spider chelicerae are basically used for prey capture, but males of Paratrechalea also use the chelicerae to offer a nuptial gift during courtship, also presenting a clear size and colour sexual dimorphism supporting a possible role as a signal. Chelicerae size was male biased for all the variables studied and showed an isometric pattern, while females showed a higher variation. Our findings are in accordance with models of viability-related function for prey capture, questioning some statements proposed by the positive allometry model. [source] | ||||||||||