Collaborative Research: The role of compensation in the evolution of ornaments

进化是造成男性许多奇异和华丽的身体特征（即装饰品）的原因，但它们如何保持男性质量的可靠指标仍然存在争议。目前的假设表明，装饰品对佩戴者来说是昂贵的，然而，由于装饰品而导致的运动性能下降或生存或繁殖成功率下降（即达尔文适应性）的研究一直没有定论。对于大型装饰品，自然选择应该有利于特征和行为的进化，以抵消装饰品的成本，从而掩盖其真实成本。柄眼苍蝇提供了一个理想的模型系统，以测试的成本和权衡有关的男性reproduction由于其夸张的头部形态，与眼睛移位在长柄的末端。这些苍蝇表现出相当大的变化，肌肉和翅膀的大小，补偿特性，可能会抵消飞行性能的眼柄的惯性影响。本研究结合生物力学和飞行性能的实验，以表征补偿能力与装饰品的大小，并确定如何相互作用的装饰品和补偿性状影响苍蝇的能力，以逃避捕食者和繁殖。这项拟议中的研究有可能大大改变我们对夸张特征如何进化的理解，并提高我们对装饰物生物力学补偿的理解，并为微型无人机等生物启发的工程工作提供信息。这项研究将为博士后学者、技术人员以及研究生和本科生提供技术培训和专业发展。在两个校区的推广工作将提供STEM教育的小学生和培训K-12 educators.This研究采用了一种新的理论和实证的方法来评估装饰品的成本，考虑如何补偿能力相对装饰品的大小影响生存能力和繁殖力之间的相互作用。三个不同的研究途径将被整合，以实现这一目标。首先，使用种的茎眼蝇在家庭Diopsidae，模式的相关进化之间的眼柄和补偿性状将揭示选择的宏观进化后果和测试的假设，即相对装饰尺寸将呈正相关的补偿性状的相对大小内和跨物种。其次，一系列的飞行性能，机动性和捕食者回避实验将测试的假设，相对补偿能力预测生存成本。最后，一系列的围隔实验，捕食和竞争的相互作用，将测试是否投资在补偿性状与投资补偿性状提供不同的手段，以相同的健身结束在茎眼苍蝇;围隔实验将评估生殖后果的生存能力成本与补偿不足的大补偿相比，与过度补偿小补偿的生存能力优势。

Evolution is responsible for many bizarre and showy physical characteristics (i.e. ornaments) in males, but how they remain reliable indicators of male quality remains controversial. Current hypotheses indicate that ornaments are costly to their bearers, however studies testing for decreased locomotor performance or decreased survival or reproductive success (i.e. Darwinian fitness) as a result of ornaments have been inconclusive. For large ornaments, selection should favor evolution of traits and behavior that offset costs of ornaments, thus concealing their true costs. Stalk-eyed flies provide an ideal model system to test for costs and tradeoffs related to male ornamentation due to their exaggerated head morphology, with eyes displaced at the end of long stalks. These flies exhibit considerable variation in muscle and wing size, compensatory traits that may offset the inertial effects of eye stalks on flight performance. This research incorporates biomechanical and flight performance experiments to characterize compensatory ability in relation to ornament size, and determine how the interaction of ornaments and compensatory traits impact flies' ability to evade predators and reproduce. The proposed research has the potential to significantly revise our understanding of how exaggerated traits evolve and also improve our understanding of biomechanical compensation for ornaments and inform bio-inspired engineering efforts such as miniature drones. This research will provide technical training and professional development to a post-doctoral scholar, a technician and graduate and undergraduate students. Outreach efforts at both campuses will provide STEM education to elementary students and training to K-12 educators.This research employs a novel theoretical and empirical approach to assess the costs of ornaments by considering how compensatory ability in relation to relative ornament size affects the interaction between viability and fecundity. Three distinct avenues of research will be integrated to achieve this goal. First, using species of stalk-eye flies within the family Diopsidae, patterns of correlated evolution between eye stalks and compensatory traits will reveal the macroevolutionary consequences of selection and test the hypothesis that relative ornament size will be positively correlated with the relative size of compensatory traits within and across species. Second, a series of flight performance, maneuverability and predator-avoidance experiments will test the hypothesis that relative compensatory ability predicts viability costs. Finally, a series of mesocosm experiments, where predation and competition interact, will test whether investment in ornamentation versus investment in compensatory traits offers different means to the same fitness end in stalk-eyed flies; the mesocosm experiments will assess the reproductive consequences of viability costs associated with under-compensating for large ornamentation compared to the viability advantages associated with over-compensating for small ornamentation.