Population density affects male mate choosiness and morphology in the mate-guarding amphipod<i>Gammarus roeselii</i>(Crustacea: Amphipoda)

Lipkowski, Konrad; Plath, Martin; Klaus, Sebastian; Sommer-Trembo, Carolin

doi:10.1093/biolinnean/bly201

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Density‐dependent shifts in mating or mate‐finding morphology occur in other arthropods. In the amphipod Gammarus roeselii , individuals exhibit differential allocation to mating morphology in response to population density (Lipkowski et al ., 2019). In high‐density G. roeselii populations where mating competition is relatively intense, individuals express larger antennae to increase mate selectivity and larger grasping legs to reduce the likelihood of having a mate stolen.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size‐dependent flight capacity and propensity in a range‐expanding invasive insect

2021

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For capital‐breeding insects, all resources available for adult metabolic needs are accumulated during larval feeding. Therefore, body size at adult eclosion represents the total energetic capacity of the individual. For female capital breeders, body size is strongly correlated with lifetime fecundity, while in males, body size, which correlates with fitness, is less understood. In capital‐breeding species with wingless, flightless, or dispersal‐limited females, flight potential for male Lepidoptera has important implications for mate‐finding and may be correlated with body size. At low population densities, failure to mate has been identified as an important Allee effect and can drive the success or failure of invasive species at range edges and in species of conservation concern. Th capital‐breeding European subspecies of Lymantria dispar (L.), was introduced to North America in 1869 and now ranges across much of eastern North America. In L. dispar, females are flightless and mate‐finding is entirely performed by males. We quantified male L. dispar flight capacity and propensity relative to morphological and physiological characteristics using fixed‐arm flight mills. A range of male body sizes was produced by varying the protein content of standard artificial diets while holding other dietary components constant. Wing length, a proxy for body size, relative thorax mass, and forewing aspect were all important predictors of total flight distance and maximum speed. These results have important implications for mate‐finding and invasion dynamics in L. dispar and may apply broadly to other capital‐breeding insects.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size‐dependent flight capacity and propensity in a range‐expanding invasive insect

2021

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“…Hence, males from low-density populations and male-biased sex ratio are assumed to accept a broader range of female phenotypes. This hypothesis is supported by empirical evidence from insects ( Shelly and Bailey 1992 ), crustaceans ( Reading and Backwell 2007 ; Lipkowski et al 2019 ), and fish ( Berglund 1995 ; Svensson et al 2010 ; Head et al 2015 ). However, most studies investigated the influence of social parameters on male mate choice by artificially altering the respective social parameters after test animals have been introduced to the laboratory (see Table 2 in Ah-King and Gowaty 2016 for details).…”

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confidence: 69%

“…The extant of male mate choice is assumed to be driven by a trade-off between costs of being choosy (e.g., energy expenditure, Wong and Jennions 2003 ; opportunity costs, Barry and Kokko 2010 ) and net benefits from choosing a high-quality mate ( Hubbell and Johnson 1987 ; Kvarnemo and Simmons 1999 ; Reading and Backwell 2007 ). Interestingly, this trade-off has shown to be context-dependent and is affected by various biotic and abiotic environmental factors; consequently, male choosiness varies among populations that are exposed to different conditions ( Gwynne 1993 ; Wong and Jennions 2003 ; Dunn et al 2008 ; Candolin and Salesto 2009 ; Lipkowski et al 2019 ). For example, male poeciliid fish Poecilia reticulata are less choosy when exposed to high than low stream velocity ( Head et al 2010 ), and amphipod crustaceans show reduced choosiness in a high predation risk environment, Gammarus duebeni ( Dunn et al 2008 ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Natural variation in social conditions affects male mate choosiness in the amphipodGammarus roeselii

et al. 2021

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The extent of male mate choosiness is driven by a trade-off between various environmental factors associated with the costs of mate acquisition, quality assessment and opportunity costs. Our knowledge about natural variation in male mate choosiness across different populations of the same species, however, remains limited. In the current study, we compared male mate choosiness across ten natural populations of the freshwater amphipod Gammarus roeselii (Gervais, 1835), a species with overall high male mating investments, and evaluated the relative influence of population density and sex ratio (both affecting mate availability) on male mate choosiness. We investigated amplexus establishment after separating mating pairs and presenting focal males with a novel, size-matched female from the same population. Our analysis revealed considerable effects of sex ratio and (to a lesser extent) population density on time until amplexus establishment (choosiness). Male amphipods are able to perceive variable social conditions (e.g. sex ratio) and modify their mating strategy accordingly: We found choosiness to be reduced in increasingly male-biased populations, while selectivity increases when sex ratio becomes female biased. With this, our study expands our limited knowledge on natural variations in male mate choosiness and illustrates the importance of sex ratio (i.e. level of competition) for male mating decisions in natural environments. Accounting for variation in sex ratios, therefore, allows envisioning a distinctive variation of choosiness in natural populations and highlights the importance of considering social background information in future behavioural studies.

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“…It can play an important role in determining the ecological range of the phenotype, thereby shaping a species' geographic distribution and its place in the community (Ricklefs & Miles, 1994;Tobias et al, 2014). The morphologyecology relationship is relatively well understood in several organismal lineages, such as vertebrates or plants (Díaz et al, 2016;Pigot et al, 2020), where it proved instrumental in understanding the Lipkowski et al, 2019;Nahavandi et al, 2011). The link between morphology and trophic niche is one of the most pervasive and important ones from an eco-evolutionary perspective, providing critical insight into macroevolutionary processes (Davis et al, 2016;Pigot et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although morphology has been relatively well studied in several amphipod groups (Mayer et al., 2012; Mayer et al., 2009; Watling, 1993), explicit studies examining the relationship between morphology and ecology or other traits (behaviour, physiology, etc.) have emerged only recently and are restricted to a few taxa (Borza et al., 2018; Copilaş‐Ciocianu et al., 2020; Delić et al., 2016; Fišer et al., 2013, 2019; Jourdan et al., 2019; Kralj‐Fišer et al., 2020; Lipkowski et al., 2019; Nahavandi et al., 2011). The link between morphology and trophic niche is one of the most pervasive and important ones from an eco‐evolutionary perspective, providing critical insight into macroevolutionary processes (Davis et al., 2016; Pigot et al., 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphology mirrors trophic niche in a freshwater amphipod community

2021

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1. Amphipod crustaceans are ubiquitous in temperate freshwaters, where they radiated multiple times in a broad range of habitats. This has led to significant morphological and ecological disparity. However, a limited knowledge of functional morphology and its relation to ecology has often led to the view that freshwater amphipods are omnivorous shredders. Herein, we hypothesise that trophic differentiation is related to functional morphology in a sympatric assemblage of three species belonging to three widespread families: Crangonyctidae, Gammaridae, and Niphargidae.2. We quantified seasonal diet composition by examining gut contents, and measured 42 functional morphological traits.3. Our results reveal a clear trophic and morphological differentiation among these sympatric species. The carnivorous Niphargus valachicus exhibited predatory traits exemplified by a smaller molar surface and stomach length, and larger/longer grasping, locomotory, and sensory appendages in comparison to the herbivorous Gammarus dacicus. The third species, Synurella ambulans, was omnivorous given its intermediate diet and morphology. We did not find consistent evidence for seasonal diet variation, except for the summer and winter diet of G. dacicus. 4. The observed niches stretched along a broad trophic spectrum, indicating that even small riverine amphipod communities can exhibit significant functional disparity.5. The apparent connection between morphology and diet is similar to that observed in other crustaceans, strengthening our mechanistic understanding of the nichemorphology link. However, the generality of these conclusions needs to be tested on larger species datasets.

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Population density affects male mate choosiness and morphology in the mate-guarding amphipodGammarus roeselii(Crustacea: Amphipoda)

Cited by 11 publications

References 89 publications

Size‐dependent flight capacity and propensity in a range‐expanding invasive insect

Size‐dependent flight capacity and propensity in a range‐expanding invasive insect

Natural variation in social conditions affects male mate choosiness in the amphipodGammarus roeselii

Morphology mirrors trophic niche in a freshwater amphipod community

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