On the Correlation between Mating Success and Offspring Quality in Drosophila melanogaster

Fisherian flies: benefits of female choice in a lekking sandfly

“…However, genetic di¡erences in o¡spring survival are frequently detected in laboratory experiments (Simmons 1987;Taylor et al 1987;Reynolds & Gross 1992;Moore 1994), and importantly in this particular case, conditions were clearly not favourable enough to mask genetic di¡erences in the attractiveness of sons. In addition, we are con¢dent that, despite a large amount of within-group variation, our methodology was capable of detecting meaningful di¡erences in o¡spring survival across treatment groups if these existed.…”

“…Power analysis (Cohen 1988) shows that with our sample size and variation in survival, we had a 95% chance of detecting a correlation coe¤cient between o¡spring survival and mating success of as little as 0.26. To put this in context, the median r-value between measures of o¡spring survival and sire attractiveness reported by ¢eld studies claiming good-genes e¡ects is 0.47 (von Schantz et al 1989;Norris 1993;Petrie 1994;Hasselquist et al 1996;Sheldon et al 1997); the equivalent ¢gure from the laboratory is 0.65 (Taylor et al 1987;Reynolds & Gross 1654 (Pinder et al 1978), after Crawley (1993. c After correcting for multiple tests of the same hypothesis (Rice 1989), this value remained signi¢cant at p50.05.…”

“…Because of a lack of genetic markers for L. longipalpis, we were unable to assess o¡spring survival with trials using standardized, unrelated competitors (Partridge 1980;Taylor et al 1987). We thus used a more conservative method to test whether females gained good-genes bene¢ts from mate choice (see also Simmons 1987;Norris 1993;Moore 1994).…”

The evolutionary history of Drosophila buzzatii. XIV. Larger flies mate more often in nature

“…Much evidence indicates that fecundity and other adult fitness components are positively correlated with body size in Drosophila, but so does development time and, therefore, generation time (Robertson, 1957a, b;1960). Hence, a trade-off between fitness components is expected according to theories about the evolution of life histories, although apparent conflicts between sexual selection and life-history theories exist (Taylor et al, 1987). A stable equilibrium for body size can be attained if there is a cost associated with either the achievement of a large size or the fighting with conspecifics similar in size (Maynard Smith and Brown, 1986).…”

“…Males or females could enhance their reproductive success if they are able to choose their matings by means of (a) male choice: if males choose from a variety of females and mate with those who are larger and, consequently, have a higher fecundity (Robertson, 1957a, b); female choice: if females choose from a variety of males and mate with those who will confer a higher quality to the offspring (Partridge, 1980;Taylor et aL, 1987). The current belief is that female flies of Drosophila choose their mates (Spiess, 1982), yet some authors disagree (e.g., Wilkinson, 1987, p. 19).…”