Experimental evidence for female mate choice in a noctuid moth

Mating status affects female choice when females are signalers

“…It is important to note that even on standard diet, male mass varies. The low nutritional diet extended this “natural” range of masses at the lower end (see Zweerus et al, 2021 , Figure S1). The diet treatment was thus a tool to increase the range of male masses without being a factor in the experimental design.…”

“…Whereas the most obvious effect of the reduced diet was a reduction in male pupal mass, other effects of the reduced diet on male phenotypes cannot be excluded. In our experiments, we manipulated the difference in body mass because we already discovered that this variable affects female choice (Zweerus et al, 2021 ). However, we cannot exclude that diet affected additional traits unknown to us that contributed to female choice.…”

“…In this study, we determined how signaling differs between virgin and mated females and assessed whether predictions from non‐signaling females (i.e., that virgins are less choosy than mated females) hold for signaling females. Female tobacco budworm Chloridea ( Heliothis ) virescens (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) are an ideal study system because these female moths signal and also choose their mating partners (Zweerus et al, 2021 ). Also, decades of research on this species provides much information on its mating behavior.…”

“…Previous research showed that females choose mates during courtship and virgin C . virescens females prefer to mate with larger, higher‐quality males (Zweerus et al, 2021 ). Matings generally last 2–3 h (Blanco et al, 2009 ; Hosseini et al, 2016 ; Pair et al, 1977 ), during which the male transfers a spermatophore (Blanco et al, 2009 ; LaMunyon, 2000 ).…”

“…Both males and females mate only once per night, but several times over multiple nights (Flint & Kressin, 1968;Gao et al, 2020;Pair et al, 1977;Raulston et al, 1975). Previous research showed that females choose mates during courtship and virgin C. virescens females prefer to mate with larger, higher-quality males (Zweerus et al, 2021). Matings generally last 2-3 h (Blanco et al, 2009;Hosseini et al, 2016;Pair et al, 1977), during which the male transfers a spermatophore (Blanco et al, 2009;LaMunyon, 2000).…”