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Cobb NE, Mason SM, Tompkins K, Fitschen-Brown M, Rios-Cardenas O, Morris MR. Strength of female mate preferences in temperature manipulation study supports the signal reliability hypothesis. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0303691. [PMID: 38843264 PMCID: PMC11156382 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0303691] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2023] [Accepted: 04/29/2024] [Indexed: 06/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Both sexually selected traits and mate preferences for these traits can be context dependent, yet how variation in preferred traits could select for context dependent preferences has rarely been examined. The signal reliability hypothesis predicts that mate preferences vary across contexts (e.g., environments) in relation to the reliability of the information preferred traits provide in those contexts. Extensive variation in copy number of mc4r B alleles on the Y-chromosome that associates with male size in Xiphophorus multilineatus allowed us to use a split-sibling design to determine if male size is more likely to provide information about male genotype (i.e., dam) when males were reared in a warm as compared to a cold environment. We then examined strength of preference for male size by females reared in the same two environments. We found that males were larger in the cold environment, but male size was more variable across dams in the warm environment, and therefore male size would be a more reliable indicator of dam (i.e., genetics) in the warm environment. Females reared in the warm environment had stronger mate preferences based on male size than cold reared females, with a significant influence of dam on strength of preference. Therefore, strength of female preference for male size was influenced by the temperature in which they were reared, with the direction of the difference across treatments supporting the signal reliability hypothesis. Understanding how the reliability of male traits can select for contextual variation in the strength of the female mate preferences will further our discovery of adaptive mate preferences. For example, a relationship between the strength of a female's mate preference and their growth rates was detected in the context where females had a preference based on male size, supporting a hypothesis from previous work with this species of disassortative mating in relation to growth rates to mitigate a documented growth-mortality tradeoff.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole E. Cobb
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, OH, United States of America
| | - Samantha M. Mason
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, OH, United States of America
| | - Keith Tompkins
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, OH, United States of America
| | | | - Oscar Rios-Cardenas
- Red de Biología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Asociación Civil, Xalapa, Veracruz, México
| | - Molly R. Morris
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, OH, United States of America
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2
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Rogers KJ, Beckers OM. Parasitism of
Neoconocephalus
katydids by the parasitoid fly,
Ormia lineifrons. Ethology 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.13245] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Kyler J. Rogers
- Department of Biological Sciences Murray State University Murray Kentucky USA
| | - Oliver M. Beckers
- Department of Biological Sciences Murray State University Murray Kentucky USA
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3
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Rodríguez RL. Back to the Basics of Mate Choice: The Evolutionary Importance of Darwin’s Sense of Beauty. THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY 2020. [DOI: 10.1086/711781] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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4
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Gurule-Small GA, Tinghitella RM. Life history consequences of developing in anthropogenic noise. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2019; 25:1957-1966. [PMID: 30825350 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2018] [Revised: 01/18/2019] [Accepted: 02/13/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
When environments change rapidly, adaptive phenotypic plasticity can ameliorate negative effects of environmental change on survival and reproduction. Recent evidence suggests, however, that plastic responses to human-induced environmental change are often maladaptive or insufficient to overcome novel selection pressures. Anthropogenic noise is a ubiquitous and expanding disturbance with demonstrated effects on fitness-related traits of animals like stress responses, foraging, vigilance, and pairing success. Elucidating the lifetime fitness effects of noise has been challenging because longer-lived vertebrate systems are typically studied in this context. Here, we follow noise-stressed invertebrates throughout their lives, assessing a comprehensive suite of life history traits, and ultimately, lifetime number of surviving offspring. We reared field crickets, Teleogryllus oceanicus, in masking traffic noise, traffic noise from which we removed frequencies that spectrally overlap with the crickets' mate location song and peak hearing (nonmasking), or silence. We found that exposure to masking noise delayed maturity and reduced adult lifespan; crickets exposed to masking noise spent 23% more time in juvenile stages and 13% less time as reproductive adults than those exposed to no traffic noise. Chronic lifetime exposure to noise, however, did not affect lifetime reproductive output (number of eggs or surviving offspring), perhaps because mating provided females a substantial longevity benefit. Nevertheless, these results are concerning as they highlight multiple ways in which traffic noise may reduce invertebrate fitness. We encourage researchers to consider effects of anthropogenic disturbance on growth, survival, and reproductive traits simultaneously because changes in these traits may amplify or nullify one another.
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5
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Males and females evolve riskier traits in populations with eavesdropping parasitoids. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-018-2588-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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6
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Wegehaupt AK, Wagner WE. Females can solve the problem of low signal reliability by assessing multiple male traits. Biol Lett 2017; 13:rsbl.2017.0386. [PMID: 28904180 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2017] [Accepted: 08/23/2017] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Male signals that provide information to females about mating benefits are often of low reliability. It is thus not clear why females often express strong signal preferences. We tested the hypothesis that females can distinguish between males with preferred signals that provide lower and higher quality direct benefits. In the field cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps, females usually prefer higher male chirp rates, but chirp rate is positively correlated with the fecundity benefits females will receive from males only for males that have experienced low quality diets. We paired females with muted males that were maintained on low or high nutrition diets, during the interactions we broadcast a replacement high chirp rate, and we observed whether females mated with the assigned male. Females were more likely to mate when paired with low nutrition males. These results suggest that females have evolved assessment mechanisms that allow them distinguish between males with preferred signals that provide high quality benefits (low nutrition males with high chirp rates) and males with preferred signals that provide low quality benefits (high nutrition males with high chirp rates).
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Affiliation(s)
- Abigail K Wegehaupt
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0118, USA
| | - William E Wagner
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0118, USA
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7
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8
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What makes a good mate? Factors influencing male and female reproductive success in a polyphagous moth. Anim Behav 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.07.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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9
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Linking mating preferences to sexually selected traits and offspring viability: good versus complementary genes hypotheses. Anim Behav 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.06.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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10
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Mitra C, Reynoso E, Davidowitz G, Papaj D. Effects of sodium puddling on male mating success, courtship and flight in a swallowtail butterfly. Anim Behav 2016; 114:203-210. [PMID: 27103748 DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.01.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
In many Lepidoptera species usually only males puddle for sodium. Two explanations have been offered for this: (1) neuromuscular activity: males need increased sodium for flight because they are more active flyers than females; and (2) direct benefits: sodium is a type of direct benefit provided by males to females via ejaculate during mating. Surprisingly, there is little direct experimental evidence for either of these. In this study, we examined both explanations using the pipevine swallowtail butterfly, Battus philenor L. If sodium increases neuromuscular activity, males consuming sodium should be better fliers than males without sodium. If males collect sodium for nuptial gifts that benefit their mates, males consuming sodium may have greater mating success than males without sodium. In that case, females then need an honest cue/signal of the quality of male-provided direct benefits that they can assess before mating. If sodium affects male courtship flight by increasing neuromuscular activity, how a male courts could serve as such a premating cue/signal of male benefit quality. Therefore, sodium may benefit males in terms of obtaining mates by increasing their neuromuscular activity. In this study we found that males that consumed sodium courted more vigorously and had greater mating success than males that consumed water. In addition, the courtship displays of males consuming sodium were significantly different from those of males consuming water, providing a possible honest cue/signal of male benefit quality that females can assess. Interestingly, we did not find evidence that sodium consumption affects male flight outside of courtship. That only aspects of male flight related to mating were affected by sodium, while aspects of general flight were not, is consistent with the idea that sodium may benefit males in terms of obtaining mates via effects on neuromuscular activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chandreyee Mitra
- Department of Biology, North Central College, Naperville, IL, U.S.A
| | - Edgar Reynoso
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A
| | - Goggy Davidowitz
- Department of Entomology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A
| | - Daniel Papaj
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A
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11
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Worthington AM, Kelly CD. Direct costs and benefits of multiple mating: Are high female mating rates due to ejaculate replenishment? Behav Processes 2016; 124:115-22. [DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2015.12.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2015] [Accepted: 12/22/2015] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
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12
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Locatello L, Poli F, Rasotto MB. Context-dependent evaluation of prospective mates in a fish. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2015; 69:1119-1126. [PMID: 26097281 PMCID: PMC4464600 DOI: 10.1007/s00265-015-1924-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2014] [Revised: 04/09/2015] [Accepted: 04/09/2015] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Female choice is often assumed to be based on absolute preference, driven by a threshold value of mate attractiveness. However, increasing evidence suggests that females may instead perform a comparative evaluation of prospective mates, possibly incurring in violation of rational decision rules (e.g. independence from irrelevant alternative, IIA). A prototypical case is the ‘asymmetrically dominated decoy’ effect where the preference for a target option over a competitor is altered by the addition of an irrelevant alternative. Here, we test for this effect in the peacock blenny Salaria pavo. Females, in binary test (i.e. focal option dyad differing in body size and extension of a yellow spot), strongly preferred one of the options. The effect of decoys, asymmetrically dominating the focal options for either yellow spot extension or body size, varied according to the initially preferred trait and the decoy type. Indeed, the addition of a decoy caused a shift in preference only when the decoy exhibited the intermediate expression of the trait less preferred initially. By contrast, females did not modify their preference in the presence of the decoy for their preferred trait. Although females’ evaluation was context-dependent, the violation of IIA was clearly observed only with respect to the initially less preferred trait. This does not exclude that females are in any case using comparative decision rules. Indeed, when faced with three alternatives, two of which are proportionally closer to each other than to the third one, they might not be able to discriminate among them, perceiving stimulus absolute magnitude.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa Locatello
- Department of Biology, University of Padova, Via U. Bassi 58/B, 35121 Padova, Italy
| | - Federica Poli
- Department of Biology, University of Padova, Via U. Bassi 58/B, 35121 Padova, Italy
| | - Maria B Rasotto
- Department of Biology, University of Padova, Via U. Bassi 58/B, 35121 Padova, Italy
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13
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Requena GS, Machado G. Effects of egg attendance on male mating success in a harvestman with exclusive paternal care. Behav Ecol 2015. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arv035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
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14
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Reding L. Increased hatching success as a direct benefit of polyandry in birds. Evolution 2014; 69:264-70. [DOI: 10.1111/evo.12553] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2014] [Accepted: 10/15/2014] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Luke Reding
- Department of Integrative Biology; University of Texas; Austin Texas 78712
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15
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Atwell A, Wagner WE. Female mate choice plasticity is affected by the interaction between male density and female age in a field cricket. Anim Behav 2014. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.10.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
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16
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17
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18
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Fitzsimmons LP, Bertram SM. No relationship between long-distance acoustic mate attraction signals and male fertility or female preference in spring field crickets. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2013. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-013-1511-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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19
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Mautz BS, Møller AP, Jennions MD. Do male secondary sexual characters signal ejaculate quality? A meta-analysis. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2013; 88:669-82. [PMID: 23374138 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 71] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2011] [Revised: 12/20/2012] [Accepted: 01/07/2013] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
There are two reasons why researchers are interested in the phenotypic relationship between the expression of male secondary sexual characters (SSCs) and 'ejaculate quality' (defined as sperm/ejaculate traits that are widely assumed to increase female fertility and/or sperm competitiveness). First, if the relationship is positive then females could gain a direct benefit by choosing more attractive males for fertility assurance reasons ('the phenotype-linked fertility' hypothesis). Second, there is much interest in the direction of the correlation between traits favoured by pre-copulatory sexual selection (i.e. affecting mating success) and those favoured by post-copulatory sexual selection (i.e. increasing sperm competitiveness). If the relationship is negative this could lead to the two forms of selection counteracting each other. Theory predicts that the direction of the relationship could be either positive or negative depending on the underlying genetic variance and covariance in each trait, the extent of variation among males in condition (resources available to allocate to reproductive traits), and variation among males in the cost or rate of mating. We conducted a meta-analysis to determine the average relationship between the expression of behavioural and morphological male secondary sexual characters and four assays of ejaculate quality (sperm number, viability, swimming speed and size). Regardless of how the data were partitioned the mean relationship was consistently positive, but always statistically non-significant. The only exception was that secondary sexual character expression was weakly but significantly positively correlated with sperm viability (r = 0.07, P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the strength or direction of the relationship between behavioural and morphological SSCs, nor among relationships using the four ejaculate quality assays. The implications of our findings are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian S Mautz
- Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
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20
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Do frog-eating bats perceptually bind the complex components of frog calls? J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol 2013; 199:279-83. [DOI: 10.1007/s00359-012-0791-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2012] [Revised: 12/03/2012] [Accepted: 12/30/2012] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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21
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Wagner WE, Beckers OM, Tolle AE, Basolo AL. Tradeoffs limit the evolution of male traits that are attractive to females. Proc Biol Sci 2012; 279:2899-906. [PMID: 22456890 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2012.0275] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Tradeoffs occur between a variety of traits in a diversity of organisms, and these tradeoffs can have major effects on ecological and evolutionary processes. Far less is known, however, about tradeoffs between male traits that affect mate attraction than about tradeoffs between other types of traits. Previous results indicate that females of the variable field cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps, prefer male songs with higher chirp rates and longer chirp durations. In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that a tradeoff between these traits affects the evolution of male song. The two traits were negatively correlated among full-sibling families, consistent with a genetically based tradeoff, and the tradeoff was stronger when nutrients were limiting. In addition, for males from 12 populations reared in a common environment, the traits were negatively correlated within populations, the strength of the tradeoff was largely invariant across populations, and the within-population tradeoff predicted how the traits have evolved among populations. A widespread tradeoff thus affects male trait evolution. Finally, for males from four populations assayed in the field, the traits were negatively correlated within and among populations. The tradeoff is thus robust to the presence of environmental factors that might mask its effects. Together, our results indicate there is a fundamental tradeoff between male traits that: (i) limits the ability of males to produce multiple attractive traits; (ii) limits how male traits evolve; and (iii) might favour plasticity in female mating preferences.
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Affiliation(s)
- William E Wagner
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.
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22
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Male field crickets infested by parasitoid flies express phenotypes that may benefit the parasitoids. Anim Behav 2011. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.08.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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