The mating behaviour of a boreal water beetle,<i>Dytiscus alaskanus</i>(Coleoptera Dytiscidae)

Aiken, R. B.

doi:10.1080/08927014.1992.9523136

Cited by 32 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…During precopulatory courtship, the male uses its forelegs to mount on the female's elytra, but mating cannot proceed unless the male manages to manoeuvre to the correct position [29]. The forelegs and elytra provide a striking example of sexual dimorphism [30,31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Underwater attachment using hairs: the functioning of spatula and sucker setae from male diving beetles

Ying

Shih

et al. 2014

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Males of Dytiscinae beetles use specialized adhesive setae to adhere to female elytra during underwater courtship. This coevolution of male setae and female elytra has attracted much attention since Darwin. However, there has been little examination of their biomechanical functioning despite increasing knowledge on biofibrillar adhesion. Here, we report and compare, for the first time, the mechanisms of underwater attachment using two hair types, the primitive spatula and derived 'passive' sucker, found in male diving beetles. Results from interspecific scaling of protarsal palettes and adhesion by single seta suggest better performance in the later-evolved circular (sucker) setae. Spatula setae with a modified shallow sucker and channels use the combined mechanisms of suction and viscous resistance for adhesion. Velocity-dependent adhesion provides sufficient control for resisting the female's erratic movements while also detaching easily through slow peeling. Direction-dependent shear resistance helps reorient setae surfaces into a preferred direction for effective adhesion. Seta deformation using different mechanisms for circular and spatula setae reduces the force that is transmitted to the contact interface. A softer spring in spatula setae explains their adhesion at lower preloads and assists in complete substrate contact. Attachment mechanisms revealed in adhesive setae with modified spatula and passive suckers provide insights for bioinspired designs of underwater attachment devices.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Underwater attachment using hairs: the functioning of spatula and sucker setae from male diving beetles

Ying

Shih

et al. 2014

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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“…A male will initially attempt to adhere to a female anywhere on her dorsal surfaces with his front legs, while the female rapidly swims away to escape in the bottom substrate [18]. If the male manages to hold on to the female and to manoeuvre her to the correct mating position, mating may proceed [18]. For this initial capture and for the manoeuvring of the female, the protarsal suction cups are probably more important than the mesotarsal suction cups [14,18,22].…”

Section: Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We studied the protarsal suction cups (figure 1), which have a more complex composition of suction cups and which are crucial for the initial capture of females. A male will initially attempt to adhere to a female anywhere on her dorsal surfaces with his front legs, while the female rapidly swims away to escape in the bottom substrate [18]. If the male manages to hold on to the female and to manoeuvre her to the correct mating position, mating may proceed [18].…”

Section: Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In subfamily Dytiscinae, these adhesive setae are found only in males and formed as suction cups (figure 1). Males use these suction cups to capture a female and hold her during mating, which proceeds when the female is exhausted after a long premating struggle [18,19]. Furthermore, in many Dytiscinae the male inserts a mating plug in the female genitalia to prevent her from mating with other males [18,19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Male clasping ability, female polymorphism and sexual conflict: fine-scale elytral morphology as a sexually antagonistic adaptation in female diving beetles

Green

Kovalev

Svensson

et al. 2013

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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During sexual conflict, males and females are expected to evolve traits and behaviours with a sexually antagonistic function. Recently, sexually antagonistic coevolution was proposed to occur between male and female diving beetles (Dytiscidae). Male diving beetles possess numerous suction cups on their forelegs whereas females commonly have rough structures on their elytra. These rough structures have been suggested to obstruct adhesion from male suction cups during mating attempts. However, some diving beetle species are dimorphic, where one female morph has a rough elytra and the other has a smooth elytra. Here, we used biomechanics to study the adhesive performance of male suction cups on the female morphs in two diving beetle species: Dytiscus lapponicus and Graphoderus zonatus. We compared adhesion on the rough and the smooth female morphs to infer the function of the rough elytral modifications. We found that the adhesive force on the rough structures was much lower than on other surfaces. These findings support the suggestion of sexual conflict in diving beetles and a sexually antagonistic function of the rough female structures. In addition, males differed in their adhesive capacity on different female surfaces, indicating a male trade-off between adhering to smooth and rough female morphs.

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“…First, males of some species invest heavily in sperm production (up to 13% of total body mass in Dytiscus sharpi) (32). Second, males of numerous species display behavioral adaptations to reduce sperm competition (i.e., mate guarding and mating plugs) (32)(33)(34)(35). Third, comparative studies have identified coevolutionary arms races between female mating resistance and male persistence traits (36,37), consistent with a history of polyandry.…”

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confidence: 99%

Female reproductive tract form drives the evolution of complex sperm morphology

Higginson

Miller

Segraves

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

113

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The coevolution of female mate preferences and exaggerated male traits is a fundamental prediction of many sexual selection models, but has largely defied testing due to the challenges of quantifying the sensory and cognitive bases of female preferences. We overcome this difficulty by focusing on postcopulatory sexual selection, where readily quantifiable female reproductive tract structures are capable of biasing paternity in favor of preferred sperm morphologies and thus represent a proximate mechanism of female mate choice when ejaculates from multiple males overlap within the tract. Here, we use phylogenetically controlled generalized least squares and logistic regression to test whether the evolution of female reproductive tract design might have driven the evolution of complex, multivariate sperm form in a family of aquatic beetles. The results indicate that female reproductive tracts have undergone extensive diversification in diving beetles, with remodeling of size and shape of several organs and structures being significantly associated with changes in sperm size, head shape, gains/losses of conjugation and conjugate size. Further, results of Bayesian analyses suggest that the loss of sperm conjugation is driven by elongation of the female reproductive tract. Behavioral and ultrastructural examination of sperm conjugates stored in the female tract indicates that conjugates anchor in optimal positions for fertilization. The results underscore the importance of postcopulatory sexual selection as an agent of diversification.ornaments | sperm competition | heteromorphism | genitalia | spermatheca D arwin attributed the evolution of many elaborate male traits to selection exerted by female mate discrimination (1). Female choosiness remains a foundation of sexual selection theory, with most models predicting a pattern of coevolution between female preference and exaggerated male traits (2). The role of cognition, however, renders preferences notoriously difficult to quantify, with constraints on the timing of reproduction, risks associated with mate evaluation, and environmental influences on female perception of mate quality further complicating matters (3). Consequently, few studies have attempted to test macroevolutionary patterns of codiversification of female preference and male traits, and those that do have very limited taxon sampling (4, 5).As with male traits important for mate choice, some sperm attributes exhibit high levels of morphological variation within species (6, 7) and dramatic divergence among species (7). This variation has been widely attributed to postcopulatory sexual selection (8-11), occurring whenever females mate with multiple males within a breeding cycle (12). Experimental and comparative evidence indicates that female reproductive tract architecture can influence competitive male fertilization success and generate selection on sperm form (2, 13-16), thus representing the proximate basis of female sperm choice (17). Reproductive tract dimensions are easily quantifiable and, becau...

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The mating behaviour of a boreal water beetle,Dytiscus alaskanus(Coleoptera Dytiscidae)

Cited by 32 publications

References 12 publications

Underwater attachment using hairs: the functioning of spatula and sucker setae from male diving beetles

Underwater attachment using hairs: the functioning of spatula and sucker setae from male diving beetles

Male clasping ability, female polymorphism and sexual conflict: fine-scale elytral morphology as a sexually antagonistic adaptation in female diving beetles

Female reproductive tract form drives the evolution of complex sperm morphology

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