Mating failure

Greenway, Elisabeth Virginia; Dougherty, Liam R.; Shuker, David M.

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.02.058

Cited by 41 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Sib‐mating avoidance would thus result in ~1% more fertile offspring on average, a fitness gain that may be insignificant. Female discrimination against related males could decay over time given that females are less choosy after encountering a succession of low‐quality males (i.e., genetically related in our study). For instance, repetitive rejections of brothers could inform females on the scarcity of unrelated partners and the subsequent risk of reproductive failure (Greenway, Dougherty, & Shuker, ; Rhainds, ). The failure to mate can be more costly than a matched mating, because no daughters will be produced (Taylor & Sauer, ; Verner, ) and the decrease in the number of fertile offsprings during a sib‐mating is low even under random mating (5.8%, see ‐E).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insects and incest: Sib‐mating tolerance in natural populations of a parasitoid wasp

et al. 2020

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Sib‐mating avoidance is a pervasive behaviour that is expected to evolve in species subject to inbreeding depression. Although laboratory studies provide elegant demonstrations, small‐scaled bioassays minimize the costs of mate finding and choice, and thus may produce spurious findings. We therefore combined laboratory experiments with field observations to examine the existence of inbreeding avoidance using the parasitoid wasp Venturia canescens. In the laboratory, our approach consisted of mate‐choice experiments to assess kin discrimination in population cages with competitive interactions. A higher mating probability after sib rejections suggested that females could discriminate their sibs; however, in contrast to previous findings, sib‐mating avoidance was not observed. To compare our laboratory results to field data, we captured 241 individuals from two populations. Females laid eggs in the lab, and 226 daughters were obtained. All individuals were genotyped at 18 microsatellite loci, which allowed inference of the genotype of each female's mate and subsequently the relatedness within each mating pair. We found that the observed rate of sib‐mating did not differ from the probability that sibs encountered one another at random in the field, which is consistent with an absence of sib‐mating avoidance. In addition, we detected a weak but significant male‐biased dispersal, which could reduce encounters between sibs. We also found weak fitness costs associated with sib‐mating. As such, the sex‐biased dispersal that we found is probably sufficient to mitigate these costs. These results imply that kin discrimination has probably evolved for purposes other than mate choice, such as superparasitism avoidance.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insects and incest: Sib‐mating tolerance in natural populations of a parasitoid wasp

et al. 2020

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“…That is not to say that all matings involve successful sperm transfer because 'mating failures' appear to be rather common, even among conspecifics. Mating failure is probably more common than often realised (Eberhard, 1996;Garc ıa-Gonz alez, 2004) and interest in this phenomenon is growing (Rhainds, 2010;Greenway, Dougherty & Shuker, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of reproductive isolation within and between twoLygaeusspecies characterized by sexual conflicts over mating

Evans

Nowlan

Shuker

2015

Biol. J. Linn. Soc.

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Theory suggests that, under some circumstances, sexual conflict over mating can lead to divergent sexually antagonistic coevolution among populations for traits associated with mating, and that this can promote reproductive isolation and hence speciation. However, sexual conflict over mating may also select for traits (e.g. male willingness to mate) that enhance gene flow between populations, limiting population divergence. In the present study, we compare pre‐ and post‐mating isolation within and between two species characterized by male–female conflict over mating rate. We quantify sexual isolation among five populations of the seed bug Lygaeus equestris collected from Italy and Sweden, and two replicates of a population of the sister‐species Lygaeus simulans, also collected from Italy. We find no evidence of reproductive isolation amongst populations of L. equestris, suggesting that sexual conflict over mating has not led to population divergence in relevant mating traits in L. equestris. However, there was strong asymmetric pre‐mating isolation between L. equestris and L. simulans: male L. simulans were able to mate successfully with female L. equestris, whereas male L. equestris were largely unable to mate with female L. simulans. We found little evidence for strong post‐mating isolation between the two species, however, with hybrid F2 offspring being produced. Our results suggest that sexual conflict over mating has not led to population divergence, and indeed perhaps supports the contrary theoretical prediction that male willingness to mate may retard speciation by promoting gene flow.

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“…Similarly, it is now clear that mating failure – the failure of individuals, particularly females, to produce offspring – is a more common phenomenon than predicted by our assumptions of strong natural and sexual selection on primary sexual function (Rhainds, ). Mating failure can arise in a number of ways (Greenway et al ., ), with failure to achieve successful insemination despite successful intromission perhaps being one of the more perplexing examples, but this too can be surprisingly common (e.g. 40–60% in Lygaeus seed bugs; Tadler et al ., ; Dougherty & Shuker, ; Greenway & Shuker, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproductive interference in insects

Shuker

Burdfield‐Steel

2017

Ecological Entomology

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Abstract. 1. Reproductive interference occurs when members of different species engage in reproductive interactions, leading to a fitness cost to one or both actors.2. These interactions can arise through signal interference ('signal-jamming'), disrupted mate searching, heterospecific rivalry, mate choice errors, or misplaced courtship, mating attempts or copulation.3. We present a definition of reproductive interference (RI) and discuss the extent to which a failure of species discrimination is central to a definition of RI.4. The possible mechanisms of RI are reviewed, using a range of insect examples. 5. Some of the causes and consequences of RI are discussed, focusing in particular on mating systems and mating system evolution.6. We conclude by considering future ways forward, highlighting the opportunities for new theory and tests of the old theory presented by reproductive interference.

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Mating failure

Abstract: Greenway et al. introduce the concept of mating failure, the failure to produce offspring.

Cited by 41 publications

References 3 publications

Insects and incest: Sib‐mating tolerance in natural populations of a parasitoid wasp

Insects and incest: Sib‐mating tolerance in natural populations of a parasitoid wasp

Patterns of reproductive isolation within and between twoLygaeusspecies characterized by sexual conflicts over mating

Reproductive interference in insects

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