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Mate Discrimination (mate + discrimination)
Selected AbstractsMate discrimination by females in the burying beetle Nicrophorus orbicollis: the influence of male size on attractiveness to femalesECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 1 2002Andria E. Beeler Summary 1. Female burying beetles behave differently towards males of different sizes, avoiding mating with large males that are not defending resources but mating with small males regardless of the presence of resources. Females of the burying beetle Nicrophorus orbicollis were therefore examined to determine whether they discriminate among males using only pheromonal signals. The influence of female size on its own mate choice was also examined. 2. Females do use male pheromonal signals to discriminate among males and these signals do appear to convey information about male body size to females. Overall, females were more likely to be attracted to larger males than to smaller males. 3. Female choice of a male was influenced by both the female's own body size and the size of the female relative to the size of the two males available to it. 4. While there is an overall mating advantage for larger males, resulting from female preferences based on odour cues, smaller males are also attractive to some females under some circumstances. 5. It is argued that there are different costs and benefits of mating with different sized males, leading to the evolution of context-dependent mate choice for females and the need to be able to discriminate males of different sizes from a distance. [source] The significance of wing pattern diversity in the Lycaenidae: mate discrimination by two recently diverged speciesJOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 5 2002J. A. Fordyce Abstract Closely related species of lycaenid butterflies are determinable, in part, by subtle differences in wing pattern. We found that female wing patterns can act as an effective mate-recognition signal in some populations of two recently diverged species. In field experiments, we observed that males from a Lycaeides idas population and an alpine population of L. melissa preferentially initiate courtship with conspecific females. A morphometric study indicated that at least two wing pattern elements were important for distinguishing the two species: hindwing spots and orange crescent-shaped pattern elements called aurorae. We deceived male L. idas into initiating courtship with computer generated paper models of heterospecific females when these pattern elements were manipulated, indicating that the wing pattern elements that define the diversity of this group can be effective mate recognition signals. [source] A role for ecology in male mate discrimination of immigrant females in Calopteryx damselflies?BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 3 2010MAREN WELLENREUTHER Sexual selection against immigrants is a mechanism that can regulate premating isolation between populations but, so far, few field studies have examined whether males can discriminate between immigrant and resident females. Males of the damselfly Calopteryx splendens show mate preferences and are able to force pre-copulatory tandems. We related male mate responses to the ecological characteristics of female origin, geographic distances between populations, and morphological traits of females to identify factors influencing male mate discrimination. Significant heterogeneity between populations in male mate responses towards females was found. In some populations, males discriminated strongly against immigrant females, whereas the pattern was reversed or nonsignificant in other populations. Immigrant females were particularly attractive to males when they came from populations with similar predation pressures and densities of conspecifics. By contrast, immigrant females from populations with strongly dissimilar predation pressures and conspecific densities were not attractive to males. Differences in the abiotic environment appeared to affect mating success to a lesser degree. This suggests that male mate discrimination is context-dependent and influenced by ecological differences between populations, a key prediction of ecological speciation theory. The results obtained in the present study suggest that gene-flow is facilitated between ecologically similar populations. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 100, 506,518. [source] | ||||||||||