Sexual cooperation and conflict in butterflies: a male–transferred anti–aphrodisiac reduces harassment of recently mated females

Andersson, Johan; Borg‐Karlson, Anna‐Karin; Wiklund, Christer

doi:10.1098/rspb.2000.1138

Cited by 146 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Therefore, we asked, if the only information that a virgin female has is how long she has signaled without having been found by a suitable mate, how should she adjust her signaling effort as she gets older? We end our analysis at first mating, since there are both female-specific and malespecific reasons why subsequent signaling effort changes thereafter (e.g., Andersson et al 2000).…”

Section: A Theoretical Approach To Adaptive Variation In Female Pheromentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mothematics of Female Pheromone Signaling: Strategies for Aging Virgins

Umbers¹,

Symonds

Kokko

2015

The American Naturalist

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Although females rarely experience strong mate limitation, delays or lifelong problems of mate acquisition are detrimental to female fitness. In systems where males search for females via pheromone plumes, it is often difficult to assess whether female signaling is costly. Direct costs include the energetics of pheromone production and attention from unwanted eavesdroppers, such as parasites, parasitoids, and predators. Suboptimal outcomes are also possible from too many or too few mating events or near-simultaneous arrival of males who make unwanted mating attempts (even if successfully thwarted). We show that, in theory, even small costs can lead to a scenario where young females signal less intensely (lower pheromone concentration and/or shorter time spent signaling) and increase signaling effort only as they age and gather evidence (while still virgin) on whether sperm limitation threatens their reproductive success. Our synthesis of the empirical data available on Lepidoptera supports this prediction for one frequently reported component of signalingtime spent calling (often reported as the time of onset of calling at night)-but not for another, pheromone titer. This difference is explicable under the plausible but currently untested assumption that signaling earlier than other females each night is a more reliable way of increasing the probability of acquiring at least one mate than producing a more concentrated pheromone plume. Submitted February 24, 2014; Accepted October 3, 2014; Electronically published February 2, 2015 Online enhancement: appendix.abstract: Although females rarely experience strong mate limitation, delays or lifelong problems of mate acquisition are detrimental to female fitness. In systems where males search for females via pheromone plumes, it is often difficult to assess whether female signaling is costly. Direct costs include the energetics of pheromone production and attention from unwanted eavesdroppers, such as parasites, parasitoids, and predators. Suboptimal outcomes are also possible from too many or too few mating events or near-simultaneous arrival of males who make unwanted mating attempts (even if successfully thwarted). We show that, in theory, even small costs can lead to a scenario where young females signal less intensely (lower pheromone concentration and/or shorter time spent signaling) and increase signaling effort only as they age and gather evidence (while still virgin) on whether sperm limitation threatens their reproductive success. Our synthesis of the empirical data available on Lepidoptera supports this prediction for one frequently reported component of signaling-time spent calling (often reported as the time of onset of calling at night)-but not for another, pheromone titer. This difference is explicable under the plausible but currently untested assumption that signaling earlier than other females each night is a more reliable way of increasing the probability of acquiring at least one mate than producing a more concentrated pheromone plume.

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Section: A Theoretical Approach To Adaptive Variation In Female Pheromentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mothematics of Female Pheromone Signaling: Strategies for Aging Virgins

Umbers¹,

Symonds

Kokko

2015

The American Naturalist

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“…Whether maternal yolk hormones do play a role in sexual conflict is unknown. A final example of manipulative behaviour is the transfer of anti-aphrodisiacs (Andersson et al 2000) and other means of impeding remating behaviour, such as copulatory plugs, by males to females during mating.…”

Section: Evolutionary Outcomes In Relation To the Subject Of Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolutionary outcome of sexual conflict

Lessells

2006

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

163

190

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Inter-locus sexual conflict occurs by definition when there is sexually antagonistic selection on a trait so that the optimal trait value differs between the sexes. As a result, there is selection on each sex to manipulate the trait towards its own optimum and resist such manipulation by the other sex. Sexual conflict often leads additionally to the evolution of harmful behaviour and to self-reinforcing and even perpetual sexually antagonistic coevolution. In an attempt to understand the determinants of these different outcomes, I compare two groups of traits-those related to parental investment (PI) and to mating-over which there is sexual conflict, but which have to date been explored by largely separate research traditions. A brief review suggests that sexual conflict over PI, particularly over PI per offspring, leads less frequently to the evolution of manipulative behaviour, and rarely to the evolution of harmful behaviour or to the rapid evolutionary changes which may be symptomatic of sexually antagonistic coevolution. The chief determinants of the evolutionary outcome of sexual conflict are the benefits of manipulation and resistance, the costs of manipulation and resistance, and the feasibility of manipulation. All three of these appear to contribute to the differences in the evolutionary outcome of conflicts over PI and mating. A detailed dissection of the evolutionary changes following from sexual conflict exposes greater complexity than a simple adaptation-counteradaptation cycle and clarifies the role of harm. Not all of the evolutionary changes that follow from sexual conflict are sexually antagonistic, and harm is not necessary for sexually antagonistic coevolution to occur. In particular, whereas selection on the trait over which there is conflict is by definition sexually antagonistic, collateral harm is usually in the interest of neither sex. This creates the opportunity for palliative adaptations which reduce collateral harm. Failure to recognize that such adaptations are in the interest of both sexes can hinder our understanding of the evolutionary outcome of sexual conflict.

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“…Such`monopolization con£ict' includes paternity costs to males of female remating (Parker 1970;Westneat et al 1990) and fertility costs to females of males partitioning their sperm between successive mates (Warner et al 1995). This form of con£ict will generate selection for traits, such as copulatory plugs (Polak et al 1998), anti-aphrodisiacs (Andersson et al 2000) and mate guarding by males (Birkhead & MÖller 1992), which enhance gamete monopolization through direct intervention of mate behaviour.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Males' evolutionary responses to experimental removal of sexual selection

Pitnick

Miller

Reagan

et al. 2001

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

200

193

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We evaluated the in£uence of pre-and post-copulatory sexual selection upon male reproductive traits in a naturally promiscuous species, Drosophila melanogaster. Sexual selection was removed in two replicate populations through enforced monogamous mating with random mate assignment or retained in polyandrous controls. Monogamous mating eliminates all opportunities for mate competition, mate discrimination, sperm competition, cryptic female choice and, hence, sexual con£ict. Levels of divergence between lines in sperm production and male ¢tness traits were quanti¢ed after 38^81 generations of selection. Three a priori predictions were tested: (i) male investment in spermatogenesis will be lower in monogamy-line males due to the absence of sperm competition selection, (ii) due to the evolution of increased male benevolence, the ¢tness of females paired with monogamy-line males will be higher than that of females paired with control-line males, and (iii) monogamy-line males will exhibit decreased competitive reproductive success relative to control-line males. The ¢rst two predictions were supported, whereas the third prediction was not. Monogamy males evolved a smaller body size and the size of their testes and the number of sperm within the testes were disproportionately further reduced. In contrast, the ¢tness of monogamous males (and their mates) was greater when reproducing in a non-competitive context: females mated once with monogamous males produced o¡spring at a faster rate and produced a greater total number of surviving progeny than did females mated to control males. The results indicate that sexual selection favours the production of increased numbers of sperm in D. melanogaster and that sexual selection favours some male traits conferring a direct cost to the fecundity of females.

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Sexual cooperation and conflict in butterflies: a male–transferred anti–aphrodisiac reduces harassment of recently mated females

Cited by 146 publications

References 22 publications

The Mothematics of Female Pheromone Signaling: Strategies for Aging Virgins

The Mothematics of Female Pheromone Signaling: Strategies for Aging Virgins

The evolutionary outcome of sexual conflict

Males' evolutionary responses to experimental removal of sexual selection

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