Dissertation Research: Selection on Wing Coloration

9311928汉密尔顿 达尔文用“性选择”来解释各种各样的性状，这些性状都有一个共同点，那就是对生存明显有害。 他提出，这些特征的进化是因为它们使携带者在竞争或吸引配偶时具有优势。 性选择现在被广泛认为是性别差异进化的主要机制，也是新物种进化的潜在重要因素。 然而，人们对性选择的机制、限制性选择的因素以及性选择特征变异的本质知之甚少。 Gregory F.先生Grether的博士论文研究将在一个模型无脊椎动物系统中解决其中的几个问题，红癍豆娘。 格雷瑟先生获得的证据表明，雄性翅膀底部的红色斑点是经过性选择的。 他现在将进行一系列实验，以（1）确定翅斑变异对雄性之间相互作用的影响，（2）测试雌性配偶偏好，（3）测量翅斑对捕食者和猎物的显著性的生态成本，以及（4）调查翅斑变异与雄性质量之间的关系，通过偏离双侧不对称来评估。 Grether先生对性选择理论有着深刻的理解，并开发了一个实验系统，有可能为该理论的测试产生明确的结果。

9311928 Hamilton Darwin offered "sexual selection" as an explanation for a wide variety of traits having in common the paradoxical quality of being apparently detrimental to survival. He proposed that such traits have evolved because they give an advantage to the bearer in competing for or attracting mates. Sexual selection is now widely regarded to be a major mechanism for the evolution of differences between the sexes and a potentially important factor in the evolution of new species. Yet little is known about the mechanisms underlying sexual selection, the factors constraining it, or the nature of variation in sexually selected traits. Mr. Gregory F. Grether's doctoral-dissertation research will address several of these issues in a model invertebrate system, the rubyspot damselfly. Mr. Grether has obtained evidence that the red-pigmented spots at the base of the males' wings are sexually selected. He now will conduct a series of experiments to (1) determine the effect of wing-spot variation on interactions between males, (2) test for female mate preferences, (3) measure ecological costs of the wing spot in terms of conspicuousness to predators and prey, and (4) investigate the relationship between wing-spot variation and male quality as assessed by deviations from bilateral asymmetry. Mr. Grether has demonstrated outstanding depth of understanding of sexual-selection theory and has developed an experimental system with the potential to produce unequivocal results for tests of the theory.