Diet quality impairs male and female reproductive performance and affects the opportunity for selection in an insect model

Abstract

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Population density affects sexual selection in an insect model

“…All data and analysis code used in this study are available at the Zenodo data repository https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8081831 (Winkler et al, 2023). Additionally, all analyses and figure codes are available at GitHub https://lenna rtwin kler.github.io/Densi ty/.…”

“…There are at least two main causal pathways by which density can affect sexual selection. First, population density might affect sexual selection indirectly by changing the availability of and therefore the competition for natural resources such as food, which, as mentioned before, has been shown to affect sexual selection (Cattelan et al, 2020; Gwynne, 1990; Gwynne & Simmons, 1990; Janicke et al, 2015; Winkler & Janicke, 2022). Second and in the focus of this study, population density might affect sexual selection by influencing more directly the competition for mating partners and their gametes by changing the frequency and nature of interactions between conspecifics.…”

“…Until now, our understanding of how ecological factors impact on sexual selection is still limited, but there is growing evidence that both biotic and abiotic factors can modify the strength of competition for mating partners and/or their gametes (Miller & Svensson, 2014). In particular, sexual selection has been studied in response to food availability (Allen & Levinton, 2014; Cattelan et al, 2020; Gwynne, 1990; Gwynne & Simmons, 1990; Janicke et al, 2015; Winkler & Janicke, 2022), temperature (Allen & Levinton, 2014; García‐Roa et al, 2020; Monteiro & Lyons, 2012), humidity (Le Galliard et al, 2006) and environmental noise (Swaddle & Page, 2007) yielding mixed results.…”

No fitness effects of same‐sex copulations in male red flour beetles

“…Here, we aim to expand our limited knowledge of the adaptive significance of SSB by investigating its effect on mating behavior and reproductive success using the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum as a model system. T. castaneum is known to mate frequently (Wool, 1967) and with multiple partners (Lewis & Iannini, 1995; Martin et al., 2015; Winkler et al., 2023). Males display sexual behavior with both females and males (Graur & Wool, 1982; Rich, 1972, 1989; Sales et al., 2018; Wool, 1967) with observed rates of SSB ranging from 11.4% (Graur & Wool, 1982) to 44.6% (Rich, 1972).…”

Population‐level food availability affects postcopulatory sexual selection dynamics in the guppy

“…The frequency of polyandry, and hence the relative importance of postcopulatory components in determining male reproductive success can vary extremely among taxa and mating systems (Taylor et al, 2014) and drive the interspecific variation in the expression of male traits associated with mating and fertilization success (Simmons et al, 2017). However, the relative importance of pre‐ and postcopulatory success in determining a male's reproductive fitness can also vary within the same species, not only in association with alternative male phenotypes (Gage et al, 1995) but also as a consequence of the fluctuation of environmental conditions, such as, for example, food availability (Cattelan et al, 2020; Janicke et al, 2015; Winkler & Janicke, 2022), temperature (Gómez‐Llano et al, 2021; Londoño‐Nieto et al, 2023; Moiron et al, 2022; Vasudeva et al, 2014) or predation risk (Glavaschi et al, 2020, 2022). The effect of ecological variation on sexual selection dynamics may vary according to whether the organism is adapted or not to a specific change and may be therefore very specific (Miller & Svensson, 2014).…”