Mating failures as a consequence of sexual selection on females

Gwynne, Darryl; Lorch, Patrick D.

doi:10.1111/eea.12000

Cited by 9 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(102 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Theory predicts that, at least among species with Darwinian sex roles, female ornaments should be rare and limited for two reasons. First, the development of ornaments that signal fecundity necessarily redirects resources that could have been invested in fecundity instead to signals thereof, inherently inhibiting runaway male mating preferences for costly female ornaments (Fitzpatrick, Berglund & Rosenqvist, ; Edward & Chapman, ; Gwynne & Lorch, ). Additionally, conspicuous ornaments are likely to increase the risk of predation, a cost that may be borne by competitive males but not by females (Trivers, ; Andersson, ).…”

Section: Sex Role Reversalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual selection and its evolutionary consequences in female animals

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

For sexual selection to act on a given sex, there must exist variation in the reproductive success of that sex as a result of differential access to mates or fertilisations. The mechanisms and consequences of sexual selection acting on male animals are well documented, but research on sexual selection acting on females has only recently received attention. Controversy still exists over whether sexual selection acts on females in the traditional sense, and over whether to modify the existing definition of sexual selection (to include resource competition) or to invoke alternative mechanisms (usually social selection) to explain selection acting on females in connection with reproduction. However, substantial evidence exists of females bearing characters or exhibiting behaviours that result in differential reproductive success that are analogous to those attributed to sexual selection in males. Here we summarise the literature and provide substantial evidence of female intrasexual competition for access to mates, female intersexual signalling to potential mates, and postcopulatory mechanisms such as competition between eggs for access to sperm and cryptic male allocation. Our review makes clear that sexual selection acts on females and males in similar ways but sometimes to differing extents: the ceiling for the elaboration of costly traits may be lower in females than in males. We predict that current and future research on female sexual selection will provide increasing support for the parsimony and utility of the existing definition of sexual selection.

show abstract

Section: Sex Role Reversalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual selection and its evolutionary consequences in female animals

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Conversely, aging virgins increase investment in mating activities (signaling or foraging) to counterbalance the ever-increasing risk of lifelong virginity (Lehtonen et al, 2012;de Cock et al, 2014;Simmons, 2015;Umbers et al, 2015). Other adaptations to mitigate FMF include selection of microhabitats most suitable for mate attraction (Rhainds, 2010(Rhainds, , 2015, plasticity in sex role reversal (virgin females becoming the active partner when perceived abundance of males is low) (Lewis & Wang, 1991;Wing, 1991;Gwynne & Lorch, 2013;Westermann et al, 2014;Fritzsche et al, 2016), and agonistic interactions between virgin females for access to males (Rillich et al, 2009;Papadopoulos et al, 2009).…”

Section: Low Risk Of Fmf As An Emergent Property Of Male-female Adaptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mate choice in males and rejection of potential female partners are most common in species with sex role reversal and significant male parental investment (Bonduriansky, 2001). Unfortunately, consequences of mate choice and sex role reversal have rarely been investigated in terms of FMF (Gwynne & Lorch, 2013). For example, we cannot yet distinguish between two opposite theoretical predictions: (1) high paternal investment in reproduction induces mate rejection of at least some females, which may enhance risk of FMF, or (2) active mate-seeking virgin females are more likely to encounter suitable males during their life than females who passively attract males.…”

Section: Low Risk Of Fmf As An Emergent Property Of Male-female Adaptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…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%

“…Carryover effects, defined as consequences of larval hostplant quality on reproductive output of adult females, are more important in capital breeders, which rely exclusively on larval accumulated resources, than in income breeders, which feed as adults or receive male nutrients while in copula (Jervis et al, 2005). In capital breeders, carryover effects of plant quality translate into large size of females at pupation/adult emergence, which correlate positively with fitness components, including fecundity (Rhainds, 2015;Davis et al, 2016), lifespan (Holm et al, 2016;Meister et al, 2018), mating contest outcomes (Bath et al, 2015;Joel et al, 2017), and mating success (Rhainds, 2010;Gwynne & Lorch, 2013;de Cock et al, 2014).…”

Section: Carryover Host-plant Effects On Fmfmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

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

Rhainds

2019

Entomologia Exp Applicata

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

Paternity sharing in insects with female competition for nuptial gifts

Browne

Gwynne

2022

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Male parental investment is expected to be associated with high confidence of paternity. Studies of species with exclusive male parental care have provided support for this hypothesis because mating typically co‐occurs with each oviposition, allowing control over paternity and the allocation of care. However, in systems where males invest by feeding mates (typically arthropods), mating (and thus the investment) is separated from egg‐laying, resulting in less control over insemination, as male ejaculates compete with rival sperm stored by females, and a greater risk of investing in unrelated offspring (cuckoldry). As strong selection on males to increase paternity would compromise the fitness of all a female's other mates that make costly nutrient contributions, paternity sharing (males not excluded from siring offspring) is an expected outcome of sperm competition. Using wild‐caught females in an orthopteran and a dipteran species, in which sexually selected, ornamented females compete for male nuptial food gifts needed for successful reproduction, we examined paternity patterns and compared them with findings in other insects. We used microsatellite analysis of offspring (lifetime reproduction in the orthopteran) and stored sperm from wild‐caught females in both study species. As predicted, there was evidence of shared paternity as few males failed to sire offspring. Further support for paternity sharing is the lack of last‐male sperm precedence in our study species. Although paternity was not equal among sires, our estimates of paternity bias were similar to other insects with valuable nuptial gifts and contrasted with the finding that males are frequently excluded from siring offspring in species where males supply little more than sperm. This suggests paternity bias may be reduced in nuptial‐gift systems and may help facilitate the evolution of these paternal investments.

show abstract

Mating failures as a consequence of sexual selection on females

Cited by 9 publications

References 53 publications

Sexual selection and its evolutionary consequences in female animals

Sexual selection and its evolutionary consequences in female animals

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

Paternity sharing in insects with female competition for nuptial gifts

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About