Females of the lekking great snipe do not prefer males with whiter tails

How woodcocks produce the most brilliant white plumage patches among the birds

Until recently, and when compared with diurnal birds that use contrasting plumage patches and complex feather structures to convey visual information, communication in nocturnal and crepuscular species was considered to follow acoustic and chemical channels. However, many birds that are active in low-light environments have evolved intensely white plumage patches within otherwise inconspicuous plumages. We used spectrophotometry, electron microscopy, and optical modelling to explain the mechanisms producing bright white tail feather tips of the Eurasian woodcock Scolopax rusticola. Their diffuse reflectance was approximately 30% higher than any previously measured feather. This intense reflectance is the result of incoherent light scattering from a disordered nanostructure composed of keratin and air within the barb rami. In addition, the flattening, thickening and arrangement of those barbs create a Venetian-blind-like macrostructure that enhances the surface area for light reflection. We suggest that the woodcocks have evolved these bright white feather patches for long-range visual communication in dimly lit environments.

Blood transcriptomes and de novo identification of candidate loci for mating success in lekking great snipe (Gallinago media)

We assembled the great snipe blood transcriptome using data from fourteen lekking males, in order to de novo identify candidate genes related to sexual selection, and determined the expression profiles in relation to mating success. The three most highly transcribed genes were encoding different haemoglobin subunits. All tended to be overexpressed in males with high mating success. We also called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the transcriptome data and found considerable genetic variation for many genes expressed during lekking. Among these, we identified 14 polymorphic candidate SNPs that had a significant genotypic association with mating success (number of females mated with) and/or mating status (mated or not). Four of the candidate SNPs were found in HBAA (encoding the haemoglobin α-chain). Heterozygotes for one of these and one SNP in the gene PABPC1 appeared to enjoy higher mating success compared to males homozygous for either of the alleles. In a larger data set of individuals, we genotyped 38 of the identified SNPs but found low support for consistent selection as only one of the zygosities of previously identified candidate SNPs and none of their genotypes were associated with mating status. However, candidate SNPs generally showed lower levels of spatial genetic structure compared to noncandidate markers. We also scored the prevalence of avian malaria in a subsample of birds. Males infected with avian malaria parasites had lower mating success in the year of sampling than noninfected males. Parasite infection and its interaction with specific genes may thus affect performance on the lek.

Inferring local adaptation from QST?FSTcomparisons: neutral genetic and quantitative trait variation in European populations of great snipe

We applied a phenotypic QST (PST) vs. FST approach to study spatial variation in selection among great snipe (Gallinago media) populations in two regions of northern Europe. Morphological divergence between regions was high despite low differentiation in selectively neutral genetic markers, whereas populations within regions showed very little neutral divergence and trait differentiation. QST > FST was robust against altering assumptions about the additive genetic proportions of variance components. The homogenizing effect of gene flow (or a short time available for neutral divergence) has apparently been effectively counterbalanced by differential natural selection, although one trait showed some evidence of being under uniform stabilizing selection. Neutral markers can hence be misleading for identifying evolutionary significant units, and adopting the PST-FST approach might therefore be valuable when common garden experiments is not an option. We discuss the statistical difficulties of documenting uniform selection as opposed to divergent selection, and the need for estimating measurement error. Instead of only comparing overall QST and FST values, we advocate the use of partial matrix permutation tests to analyse pairwise QST differences among populations, while statistically controlling for neutral differentiation.

Direct and indirect mate choice on leks

Indirect mate choice is any behavior that restricts the individual's set of potential mates without discrimination of mate attributes directly, for example, by having preferences about where to mate. We analyzed a 14-year data set from great snipe (Gallinago media) leks for evidence of indirect mate choice based on relative and absolute position of lek territories. We found little or no effect of the centrality of territories on mating and no between-year consistency in the spatial distribution of matings within leks. Instead, the probability of matings occurring at a particular site increased if the current territory owner had mated the previous year. Furthermore, individual females returned in later seasons to mate with the same male as previously rather than at the same site. Previous work found that male interactions and dominance do not control matings and that females are very choosy about which territory they mate in. Here we show that this is because of the male occupying the territory rather than its position. We therefore conclude that direct female mate choice is the main behavioral process affecting variation in mating success among great snipe males, unlike in some lekking mammals where male competition and/or indirect mate choice appears more important.

NONLINEAR EFFECTS OF FEMALE MATE CHOICE IN WILD THREESPINE STICKLEBACKS

Sexual selection by mate choice represents a very important selective pressure in many animal species and might have evolutionary impacts beyond exaggeration of secondary sexual traits. Describing the shape and strength of the relationships linking mating success and nonsexual traits in natural conditions represents a challenging step in our understanding of adaptive evolution. We studied the effect of behavioral (nest site choice), immunological (trematode level of infection), genetic diversity (measured by mean d2) and morphological (standard length and pectoral fin size) traits on male mating success in a natural population of threespine sticklebacks Gasterosteaus aculeatus. Male mating success was measured by microsatellite genotyping of embryos used to infer female genotypes. First, we analyzed all territorial males (full analysis) but also considered independently only males with a nonzero mating success (reduced analysis) because some of the males with no eggs could have been part of a later breeding cycle. Multiple linear regressions identified a significant negative effect of parasite load in the full analysis, whereas no linear effect was found in the reduced analysis. The quadratic analyses revealed that nest location and parasite load were significantly related to mating success by positive (concave selection) and negative (convex selection) quadratic coefficients respectively, resulting in a saddle-shaped fitness surface. Moreover, there were significant interactions between nest location, mean d2 and parasite load in the reduced analysis. The subsequent canonical rotation of the matrix of quadratic and cross-product terms identified two major axes of the response surface: a vector representing mostly nest site choice and a vector representing parasite load. These results imply that there exists more than one way for a male threespine stickleback to maximize its mating success and that such nonlinear relationships between male mating success induced by female mate choice and male characteristics might have been overlooked in many studies.

Male mate choice, sexual conflict and strategic allocation of copulations in a lekking bird

The males of lekking species are not expected to be choosy about mating because a reduced reproductive rate due to lost mating opportunities should outweigh any benefits of male choice. Females have traditionally not been expected to be competitive in this system since their reproduction has usually been assumed to be unconstrained by male availability. Here we show that, in contrast to these predictions, males are choosy and females may be competitive in the lekking great snipe Gallinago media. Males preferred by many females often refused to copulate with and even chased away females that the male had already copulated with, whereas females seemed to compete for repeated copulations. We conclude that choosiness may sometimes pay for popular males in those lekking species where females copulate repeatedly. Apparently, evolutionary conflicts of interest between individuals may cause a richer repertoire of behavioural adaptations than, to our knowledge, hitherto realized.