Agonistic display or courtship behavior? A review of contests over mating opportunity in butterflies

Takeuchi, Tsuyoshi

doi:10.1007/s10164-016-0487-3

Cited by 26 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…Argynnis paphia (Magnus, ); Hipparchia semele (Tinbergen et al ., )]. Although these also occur between males in the form of contest or ‘erroneous courtship’ (Takeuchi, ), aerial interactions between males and females are thought to place the male scent organ close to the female antennae (Scott, ). Successful mating is likely favoured by high manoeuvring and hovering abilities and associated wing morphology.…”

Section: What Selective Factors Influence Flight and Associated Wing mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive evolution of butterfly wing shape: from morphology to behaviour

2019

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Butterflies display extreme variation in wing shape associated with tremendous ecological diversity. Disentangling the role of neutral versus adaptive processes in wing shape diversification remains a challenge for evolutionary biologists. Ascertaining how natural selection influences wing shape evolution requires both functional studies linking morphology to flight performance, and ecological investigations linking performance in the wild with fitness. However, direct links between morphological variation and fitness have rarely been established. The functional morphology of butterfly flight has been investigated but selective forces acting on flight behaviour and associated wing shape have received less attention. Here, we attempt to estimate the ecological relevance of morpho-functional links established through biomechanical studies in order to understand the evolution of butterfly wing morphology. We survey the evidence for natural and sexual selection driving wing shape evolution in butterflies, and discuss how our functional knowledge may allow identification of the selective forces involved, at both the macro-and micro-evolutionary scales. Our review shows that although correlations between wing shape variation and ecological factors have been established at the macro-evolutionary level, the underlying selective pressures often remain unclear. We identify the need to investigate flight behaviour in relevant ecological contexts to detect variation in fitness-related traits. Identifying the selective regime then should guide experimental studies towards the relevant estimates of flight performance. Habitat, predators and sex-specific behaviours are likely to be major selective forces acting on wing shape evolution in butterflies. Some striking cases of morphological divergence driven by contrasting ecology involve both wing and body morphology, indicating that their interactions should be included in future studies investigating co-evolution between morphology and flight behaviour.

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Section: What Selective Factors Influence Flight and Associated Wing mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive evolution of butterfly wing shape: from morphology to behaviour

2019

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“…Natural mating disruption (high rates of FMF on crowded host plants) can arise due to: (1) males being unable to discriminate receptive females from conspecific males or non receptive females (Richerson et al, 1976;Takeuchi, 2017;Sales et al, 2018), (2) passive olfactory signals of post reproductive conspecifics interfering with mate location (Gwynne & Lorch, 2013;Rhainds, 2018), or (3) adsorption of pheromone onto the foliage of host plants (Noldus et al, 1991). Testing these hypotheses requires small-scale mapping of female mating probability among georeferenced plants (van Wijk et al, 2017;Muniz et al, 2018;Sciarretta et al, 2018).…”

Section: Signal Interference and Natural Mating Disruptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecology of female mating failure/lifelong virginity: a review of causal mechanisms in insects and arachnids

Rhainds

2019

Entomologia Exp Applicata

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Sexual reproduction implies binary outcomes of competitive interactions for access to male gametes: lifelong virgin females with null fitness vs. mated females with variable (generally nonzero) fitness. Female mating failure has long remained a dormant concept in sexual selection theory in part because it is acutely maladaptive (lifelong virgins that do not reproduce are strongly selected against) and also due to widespread acceptance of the Bateman–Trivers paradigm (anisogamy and correlated sex roles). Based on recent scientific output on lifelong virginity across multiple taxonomic groups in insects (Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Odonata, Orthoptera, Strepsiptera), female mating failure has become a mainstay of sexual selection over the last decade. Lifelong virginity and senescence (death) are intertwined processes; old virgin females compensate for increased risk of lifelong virginity by becoming less choosy and increasing investment in mating‐related activities. Low rates of female lifelong virginity (<5%) in most natural populations of insects indicate that sex generally ‘works’ due to selective pressures acting on both males and females to enhance lifetime fitness. Mating failures are most common in insects with female flightlessness; these pressures may lead in evolutionary time to transitionary pathways from sexual reproduction to parthenogenesis. Female mating probability is affected by nonlinear density‐dependent processes dependent upon the scale of observation (mate‐encounter Allee effect at large spatial scales, mating interferences between females at small scales). Mate choice and sex role reversal (females being the active sexual partner) are ubiquitous in insects and arachnids with significant paternal investment, but consequences in terms of female lifelong virginity remain unknown. Logistically, conceptual development of female mating failure in insects is most limited by the lack of broadly applicable methods to assess rates of lifetime virginity among flighted females.

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“…[ 4 ]. Moreover, (iii) although male-male contests may promote variation in reproductive success, as territorial males have a higher mating success than wandering males in some butterflies, such behaviours did not lead to the evolution of weapons in butterflies [ 12 ]. In the animal kingdom, weapons are used directly in male–male fights and are not under female mate choice while ornaments are the direct target of female mate choice [ 7 , 8 , 11 , 13 ].…”

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confidence: 99%

Commentary on Kehl et al. “Young male mating success is associated with sperm number but not with male sex pheromone titres”

Nieberding

Holveck

2018

Front Zool

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Over the last years, several studies suggested that male courtship activity is more important than female preference for male secondary sexual traits in determining male mating success in the butterfly Bicyclus anynana. We use Kehl et al. (Front Zool 12, 2015)'s study and related publications, to highlight three methodological and conceptual aspects of laboratory experiments that distort the social environment compared to natural conditions. We argue that such experimental biases prevent the expression of female mate choice and artificially inflate the role of male activity in determining mating success. We really want to stress that any work performed in laboratory conditions using extreme cage densities or sizes impedes female mate choice and promotes male-male competition when sexual conflict occurs about mating decisions. Hence, such studies, and the derived conclusions, are only applicable to ecologically-irrelevant conditions and cannot be extrapolated to more natural laboratory or field conditions. Our concerns may be relevant to many behavioural studies quantifying sexual selection across taxa. This commentary adds to the increasing scientific awareness that: i) mating outcome is, across taxa, the result of a sexual conflict whose outcome is under female, and not male, control; ii) the social environment used to quantify mating success is of utmost importance to produce reliable estimates of the strength and the direction of sexual selection on sexually-selected traits, as they evolve in nature.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12983-018-0256-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Agonistic display or courtship behavior? A review of contests over mating opportunity in butterflies

Cited by 26 publications

References 79 publications

Adaptive evolution of butterfly wing shape: from morphology to behaviour

Adaptive evolution of butterfly wing shape: from morphology to behaviour

Ecology of female mating failure/lifelong virginity: a review of causal mechanisms in insects and arachnids

Commentary on Kehl et al. “Young male mating success is associated with sperm number but not with male sex pheromone titres”

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