Female mate choice plasticity is affected by the interaction between male density and female age in a field cricket
Female mate choice plasticity is affected by the interaction between male density and female age in a field cricket
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DOI：
10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.10.007
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发表时间：
2014-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Wagner, William E., Jr.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Atwell, Ashley;Wagner, William E., Jr.
雌性的配偶选择通过性选择影响进化的强度和方向。这种选择通常是可塑的，随着环境（如捕食者丰度或同种密度）和内部（如捕食者数量或密度）的变化而变化。G.女性年龄）条件。虽然这些因素可以自然地相互作用，但这种相互作用的影响才刚刚开始研究。我们使用女性可变领域的蟋蟀，蟋蟀lineaticeps，研究女性年龄和感知男性密度如何相互作用，影响女性择偶的一个方面的可塑性：女性的挑剔。女性的选择性是衡量女性对偏离女性偏好的男性特征的男性特征的反应;女性越挑剔，她对偏离偏好值的男性特征的反应就越弱。我们将雌性暴露在高或低的雄性呼唤密度环境中，然后在三个年龄之一进行测试。我们通过测量女性对低质量男性歌曲的反应来评估女性的挑剔程度：女性在低质量歌曲附近花费的时间较少被认为更挑剔。我们发现，女性年龄和感知男性密度之间的相互作用显着影响女性的反应。年轻的女性是最具可塑性的，表现出显着更挑剔的高男性密度的环境相比，低男性密度的环境。中年和老年女性表现出较低的可塑性和中间的选择性。我们的研究结果表明，在人口中，大多数女性是年轻的，性选择可能是最强的男性密度高。(C)2014年动物行为研究协会。由爱思唯尔有限公司出版。保留所有权利。
Female mate choices influence the strength and direction of evolution by sexual selection. Such choices are often plastic, changing in response to changes in environmental (e.g. predator abundance or conspecific density) and internal (e. g. female age) conditions. Although these factors can interact naturally, the effects of such interactions are only beginning to be studied. We used female variable field crickets, Gryllus lineaticeps, to examine how female age and perceived male density interact to affect the plasticity of an aspect of female mate choice: female choosiness. Female choosiness is a measure of female responses to male traits that deviate from the female's preferred male trait; the more choosy a female is, the weaker her response will be to male traits that deviate from the preferred value. We exposed females to either a high or a low male-calling density environment, then tested them at one of three ages. We assessed female choosiness by measuring the female's response to low-quality male song: females spending less time near the low-quality song were deemed more choosy. We found that the interaction between female age and perceived male density significantly affected female responses. Young females were the most plastic, showing significantly more choosiness in the high male density environment compared to the low male density environment. Intermediate and old females showed less plasticity and intermediate choosiness. Our results suggest that in populations in which most females are young, sexual selection may be strongest at high male densities. (C) 2014 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.