Temporal patterns of nutrition dependence in secondary sexual traits and their varying impacts on male mating success

Rosenthal, Malcolm F.; Hebets, Eileen A.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.02.001

Cited by 21 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 50 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Thus, the relationship between the intensity of a signal component (visible brush size) and the behavioural response (likelihood to mate) is altered across display compositions (presence/absence of vibratory signal); and the vibratory signal interacts with a visual component (sensu [4]). Similar composition, environment, and receiver-dependent functions of complex signal components are found in other wolf spiders [38][39][40][41][42].…”

Section: (B) the Dynamic Nature Of Animal Signallingsupporting

confidence: 58%

A systems approach to animal communication

Hebets¹,

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Why animal communication displays are so complex and how they have evolved are active foci of research with a long and rich history. Progress towards an evolutionary analysis of signal complexity, however, has been constrained by a lack of hypotheses to explain similarities and/or differences in signalling systems across taxa. To address this, we advocate incorporating a systems approach into studies of animal communication-an approach that includes comprehensive experimental designs and data collection in combination with the implementation of systems concepts and tools. A systems approach evaluates overall display architecture, including how components interact to alter function, and how function varies in different states of the system. We provide a brief overview of the current state of the field, including a focus on select studies that highlight the dynamic nature of animal signalling. We then introduce core concepts from systems biology (redundancy, degeneracy, pluripotentiality, and modularity) and discuss their relationships with system properties (e.g. robustness, flexibility, evolvability). We translate systems concepts into an animal communication framework and accentuate their utility through a case study. Finally, we demonstrate how consideration of the system-level organization of animal communication poses new practical research questions that will aid our understanding of how and why animal displays are so complex.

show abstract

Section: (B) the Dynamic Nature Of Animal Signallingsupporting

confidence: 58%

A systems approach to animal communication

Hebets¹,

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Indeed, sexually selected weapons and ornaments are known to exhibit heightened condition-dependent expression (Cotton et al, 2004;Bonduriansky et al, 2012;Miller et al, 2016); generally, individuals that develop sexual weapons under poor nutrient conditions have proportionally smaller weapons (e.g. Lewis et al, 2012;Warren et al, 2013;Rosenthal & Hebets, 2015). As both pre-and post-copulatory traits can be energetically demanding, males are expected to face allocation decisions when investing in one set of traits or the other.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental manipulation reveals a trade‐off between weapons and testes

Somjee

Miller

Tatarnic

et al. 2017

J of Evolutionary Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Theory predicts a trade-off between sexually selected weapons used to secure mates and post-copulatory traits used to maximize fertilization success. However, individuals that have a greater capacity to acquire resources from the environment may invest more in both pre-and post-copulatory traits, and trade-offs may not be readily apparent. Here, we manipulate the phenotype of developing individuals to examine allocation trade-offs between weapons and testes in Mictis profana (Hemiptera: Coreidae), a species where the hind legs are sexually selected weapons used in contests over access to females. We experimentally prevented males from developing weapons by inducing them to autotomize their hind legs before the final moult to adulthood. We compared trait expression in this group to males where autotomy was induced in the mid-legs, which are presumably not under sexual selection to the same extent. We found males without weapons invested proportionally more in testes mass than those with their midlegs removed. Males that developed to adulthood without weapons did not differ from the mid-leg removal group in other traits potentially under precopulatory sexual selection, other post-copulatory traits or naturally selected traits. In addition, a sample of adult males from the same population in the wild revealed a positive correlation between investment in testes and weapons. Our study presents a critical contribution to a growing body of literature suggesting the allocation of resources to pre-and post-copulatory sexual traits is influenced by a resource allocation trade-off and that this trade-off may only be revealed with experimental manipulation.

show abstract

“…[43–45]). Fewer studies, especially of vertebrates, have tested how a restricted juvenile diet affects sperm traits (but see: [35, 40, 46]). Male fertilization success is highly dependent on resource allocation to traits that are under post-copulatory sexual selection, especially when sperm competition is intense [47].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are sexually selected traits affected by a poor environment early in life?

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundChallenging conditions experienced early in life, such as a restricted diet, can detrimentally affect key life-history traits. Individuals can reduce these costs by delaying their sexual maturation, albeit at the price of the later onset of breeding, to eventually reach the same adult size as individuals that grow up in a benevolent environment. Delayed maturation can, however, still lead to other detrimental morphological and physiological changes that become apparent later in adulthood (e.g. shorter lifespan, faster senescence). In general, research focuses on the naturally selected costs of a poor early diet. In mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki), males with limited food intake early in life delay maturation to reach a similar adult body size to their well-fed counterparts (‘catch-up growth’). Here we tested whether a poor early diet is costly due to the reduced expression of sexually selected male characters, namely genital size and ejaculate traits.ResultsWe found that a male’s diet early in life significantly influenced his sperm reserves and sperm replenishment rate. Shortly after maturation males with a restricted early diet had significantly lower sperm reserves and slower replenishment rates than control diet males, but this dietary difference was no longer detectable in older males.ConclusionsAlthough delaying maturation to reach the same body size as well fed juveniles can ameliorate some costs of a poor start in life, our findings suggest that costs might still arise because of sexual selection against these males. It should be noted, however, that the observed effects are modest (Hedges’ g = 0.20–0.36), and the assumption that lower sperm production translates into a decline in fitness under sperm competition remains unconfirmed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12862-016-0838-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

show abstract

Temporal patterns of nutrition dependence in secondary sexual traits and their varying impacts on male mating success

Cited by 21 publications

References 50 publications

A systems approach to animal communication

A systems approach to animal communication

Experimental manipulation reveals a trade‐off between weapons and testes

Are sexually selected traits affected by a poor environment early in life?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About