Do female Nicrophorus vespilloides reduce direct costs by choosing males that mate less frequently?
Do female Nicrophorus vespilloides reduce direct costs by choosing males that mate less frequently?
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DOI：
10.1098/rsbl.2015.1064
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发表时间：
2016-03
期刊：
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Royle NJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hopwood PE;Mazué GP;Carter MJ;Head ML;Moore AJ;Royle NJ
当选择最大化一种性别的适应度而牺牲另一种性别时，就会发生性别冲突。在埋葬甲虫 Nicrophorus vespilloides 中，重复交配提供了父子关系的保证，但直接损失了雌性的生殖生产力。为了降低成本，雌性可以选择重复交配率低的雄性或体型较小的奴性雄性。我们通过为雌性提供二分法来测试这一点，即从高或低交配率的品系中选择雄性。然后，每个雌性都会被分配她喜欢或不喜欢的雄性来繁殖。雌性对雄性的偏好并不取决于它们是否来自高交配率或低交配率的品系。含有来自高交配率品系的雄性的配对比那些含有低交配率品系的雄性的配对更频繁，但雌性的体型和她与非首选雄性交配的次数之间存在负相关关系。当雌性与它们偏爱的雄性交配时，抚养的后代数量随着雌性体型的增加而增加，但与非偏爱的雄性交配时则没有这种增加。因此，雌性受益于挑剔，但这并不直接归因于避免昂贵的雄性重复交配。
Sexual conflict occurs when selection to maximize fitness in one sex does so at the expense of the other sex. In the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, repeated mating provides assurance of paternity at a direct cost to female reproductive productivity. To reduce this cost, females could choose males with low repeated mating rates or smaller, servile males. We tested this by offering females a dichotomous choice between males from lines selected for high or low mating rate. Each female was then allocated her preferred or non-preferred male to breed. Females showed no preference for males based on whether they came from lines selected for high or low mating rates. Pairs containing males from high mating rate lines copulated more often than those with low line males but there was a negative relationship between female size and number of times she mated with a non-preferred male. When females bred with their preferred male the number of offspring reared increased with female size but there was no such increase when breeding with non-preferred males. Females thus benefited from being choosy, but this was not directly attributable to avoidance of costly male repeated mating.