Male mate preference for female eyespan and fecundity in the stalk-eyed fly, Teleopsis dalmanni
Male mate preference for female eyespan and fecundity in the stalk-eyed fly, Teleopsis dalmanni
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DOI：
10.1093/beheco/aru192
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发表时间：
2015-03-01
影响因子：
2.4
通讯作者：
Pomiankowski, Andrew
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cotton, Alison J.;Cotton, Samuel;Pomiankowski, Andrew
传统的性选择观点认为男性是不分青红皂白的性别，为了获得挑剔的女性而竞争。人们越来越认识到，对雄性来说，交配也可能是昂贵的，因此它们可能表现出选择，以最大限度地提高繁殖成功率。柄眼蝇是性选择研究的典型物种。雄性的精子数量有限，它们能够参与的交配次数也有限。此外，雌性繁殖能力的变化已被证明与雌性的眼距呈正相关，因此眼距大小可以为雄性提供雌性繁殖价值的可靠信号。我们研究了在野外的雄性配偶偏好在茎眼蝇，Teleopsis dalmanni。此外，我们还在实验室里设置了实验，让雄性在不同的雌性之间进行选择：1)眼距（生育力的代表）和/或2)生育力（通过饮食控制）。我们发现，在野外和实验室研究中，雄性都表现出对大眼睛的雌性的偏好。除了将雌性的眼睛跨度作为交配线索外，雄性还能够直接评估雌性的繁殖力。大眼距雌性的繁殖力变化会引起雄性择偶偏好的相应变化，而小眼距雌性的繁殖力变化对其吸引力的影响有限。这些结果表明，男性择偶偏好是女性择偶的一个典型例子的普遍特征，男性在评估女性作为潜在伴侣时使用多种线索。
Traditional views of sexual selection view males as the indiscriminate sex, competing for access to choosy females. It is increasingly recognized that mating can also be costly for males and they are therefore likely to exhibit choice in order to maximize their reproductive success. Stalk-eyed flies are model species in sexual selection studies. Males are sperm limited and constrained in the number of matings they are able to partake in. In addition, variation in female fecundity has been shown to correlate positively with female eyespan, so eyespan size could provide males with a reliable signal of female reproductive value. We examined male mate preference in the wild in the stalk-eyed fly, Teleopsis dalmanni. In addition, we set up experiments in the laboratory allowing males a choice between females that varied in 1) eyespan (a proxy for fecundity) and/or 2) fecundity (manipulated through diet). We found that males exhibited preference for large eyespan females, both in the wild and laboratory studies. As well as using female eyespan as a mating cue, males were also able to assess female fecundity directly. Changes in fecundity among large eyespan females caused corresponding changes in male mate preference, whereas changes in the fecundity of small eyespan females had limited effect on their attractiveness. These results show that male mate preferences are a prevalent feature of a canonical example of female mate choice sexual selection and that males use multiple cues when they assess females as potential mates.