Symmetrical male sexual ornaments, paternal care, and offspring quality

Meller, Agnieszka

doi:10.1093/beheco/5.2.188

Cited by 49 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…On the other hand, since badge size in the collared flycatcher predicts paternal genetic effects on nestling fledgling condition, a character related to fitness (Sheldon et al 1997), female collared flycatchers may have been deceived by the false signalling of high quality by males with enlarged badges. Given such deception, two additional explanations to the reduced male share of feeds in the experimental pairs could be that males with increased badge size may be mated to females of relatively high quality (Darwin 1871;Fisher 1958) and/or to females that may be willing to invest relatively more in their offspring as postulated in the differential allocation hypothesis (Burley (1986), for empirical evidence see Burley (1988), de Lope & Møller (1993 and Møller (1994)). However, I found no differences in aspects of quality such as age, lay date or clutch size between females mated to males from the two treatment groups.…”

Section: Discussion (A) Do Males That Signal Too High a Status Enjoy mentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimentally increased badge size increases male competition and reduces male parental care in the collared flycatcher

Qvarnström

1997

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

168

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SUMMARYExperimental enlargement of sexually selected traits that are energetically cheap to produce is expected to reveal costs resulting from increased risk of predation or social competition. Given a trade-off between sexually selected traits and life history traits such costs may be expected to affect not only the males themselves but also their offspring. In this study I manipulated the size of the forehead patch, a sexually selected trait that functions as a badge of status in male collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis). First, I found that a male's likelihood to establish a breeding territory with respect to his original badge size was affected by the treatment such that old males (older than or equal to two years) with relatively small original badges enjoyed an increased likelihood of establishing a breeding territory while young males (yearlings) suffered a reduced likelihood of establishment when their badges were enlarged as compared to unchanged. Second, young males with enlarged badges that were able to establish a territory fed their nestlings less in relation to their females compared to the control males. However, the females adjusted their parental effort to such an extent that no significant differences were observed in total feeding rate nor in reproductive success between the two groups of males. These results suggest that experimentally enlarged badge size in the collared flycatcher may result in increased male competition and that males have to trade their effort spent in male contest against their parental effort.

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Section: Discussion (A) Do Males That Signal Too High a Status Enjoy mentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimentally increased badge size increases male competition and reduces male parental care in the collared flycatcher

Qvarnström

1997

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

168

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“…Female barn swallows are known to differential feed their offspring when mated to an attractive male (de Lope & Møller, 1993; Møller, 1994c; Saino & Møller, 1995). However, such differential parental investment by females cannot have affected the resemblance between parasite loads of offspring and that of their fathers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, such differential parental investment by females cannot have affected the resemblance between parasite loads of offspring and that of their fathers. Male tail length is only known to affect the relative feeding effort of parent barn swallows, but not the total amount of food provisioning by the breeding pair (de Lope & Møller, 1993; Møller, 1994c; Saino & Møller, 1995).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic variation in infestation with a directly transmitted ectoparasite

Møller

Martinelli

Saino

2004

Journal of Evolutionary Biology

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Genetic variation in levels of parasitism of hosts is an underlying assumption of studies of coevolution, but few such estimates are available from the field. We studied genetic variation in the abundance of the chewing louse Hirundoecus malleus on its barn swallow host Hirundo rustica. These parasites are directly transmitted and a test of genetic variation of parasite abundance would thus provide a particularly strong test. The prevalence and the abundance of the chewing lice did not differ significantly between adult male and female hosts. The resemblance in parasite intensity of H. malleus of offspring and their parents was positive and highly significant, and an analysis of extra‐pair paternity in the host allowed partitioning of this resemblance between genetic and common environment effects. There was no significant resemblance in parasite intensity between extra‐pair offspring and their foster parents, although the resemblance remained for within‐pair offspring. This provides evidence for the abundance of directly transmitted parasites having an additive genetic component. We found no evidence of common environment effects as parents did not resemble each other with respect to lice abundance.

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“…Four potentially confounding factors were partialled out for both male and female parents: parental tail length, laying date, brood size and experimental treatment. Tail length of male (Møller 1988) and female (Møller 1993) parents is positively related to the number of fledglings and other measures of breeding performance and might also influence offspring quality (but see Møller 1994c). Nestlings born early in the season are more likely to recruit (Møller 1994a), and nestling quality might also be related to laying date, as in the Great Tit Parus major (Daan et al 1989).…”

Section: Study Site and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Short-term obstacle course experiments by Møller (1991a), Evans et al (1994), Swaddle et al (1996) and Swaddle (1997) show evidence for the existence of both direct and indirect effects of FA on bird flight performance. Møller (1992Møller ( , 1994c) manipulated male tail length and FA independently and found that asymmetrical males had decreased annual reproductive success. Females were not manipulated, and both parents adjusted their food provisioning rates, obliterating differences in nestling quality (body mass and tarsus length) between treatment groups (Møller 1994c).…”

Section: Nestling Conditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parent Barn Swallow fluctuating asymmetry and offspring quality

Cadée¹

2000

Journal of Avian Biology

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Cadée, N. 2000. Parent Barn Swallow fluctuating asymmetry and offspring quality. -J. Avian Biol. 31: 495-503.Fluctuating asymmetry may impair locomotion but may also reflect intrinsic phenotypic quality. I tested whether fluctuating asymmetry of adult Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica negatively influenced offspring quality, by estimating the relationship between parental asymmetry and offspring size, condition and immunocompetence during three breeding seasons. Controlling for timing of breeding, brood size and the size of a secondary sexual character (tail length), wing and outermost tail feather asymmetry of male and female parents was not significantly correlated with offspring size, condition and immunocompetence. This was the case in spite of clear differences in nestling quality among years. In addition, parents with extreme asymmetries due to tail feather damage (not representing fluctuating asymmetry) did not have nestlings of lower quality than parents with undamaged tail feathers. These results indicate that there is only a weak relation between parental asymmetry and offspring quality. Laboratoire d'Ecologie, Uni6ersité Pierre et Marie Curie, 7 quai St Bernard, Case 237, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05, France. Present address: Noldus Information Technology b.6.,

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Symmetrical male sexual ornaments, paternal care, and offspring quality

Cited by 49 publications

References 15 publications

Experimentally increased badge size increases male competition and reduces male parental care in the collared flycatcher

Experimentally increased badge size increases male competition and reduces male parental care in the collared flycatcher

Genetic variation in infestation with a directly transmitted ectoparasite

Parent Barn Swallow fluctuating asymmetry and offspring quality

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