Category Ranking
98%
Total Visits
921
Avg Visit Duration
2 minutes
Citations
20
Article Abstract
Although sexual selection is a well-established part of evolutionary biology, controversies remain about the roles of males and females. For instance, despite clear evidence of male mate choice across a very broad range of species, traditional views of male and female sex roles - the former competitive, the latter choosy - are still common. In addition, studies looking at mate choice in natural populations, especially in terms of male mate choice, remain limited. Here, we consider body size, an important phenotype in mate choice in many species, and its association with patterns of non-random mating in wild populations of two species of seed bug, Spilostethus pandurus and Lygaeus creticus. We found strong directional pre-copulatory sexual selection for larger females in both species. On the other hand, patterns of selection on male size differed between the two species. There was directional sexual selection for larger individuals in L. creticus, and stabilising selection for intermediate-sized males in S. pandurus. Our results suggest that while males and females in both species mate non-randomly with respect to the body size of their partner, male precopulatory mate choice may be an important component of selection on females in the wild.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jeb/voaf101 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
No Evidence That Women's Sociosexuality or Self-Perceived Mate Value Predict Their Preferences for Men's Face-Shape Masculinity.
Evol Psychol
September 2025
Department of Psychological Sciences & Health, University of Strathclyde, UK.
Researchers have suggested that men with more masculine facial characteristics have stronger immune systems but are perceived to be less likely to invest resources in partners and offspring. How women resolve this putative trade-off between the costs and benefits of choosing a masculine mate have previously been reported to be associated with women's openness to uncommitted relationships (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAssortative Mating Is a Natural Consequence of Heritable Variation in Preferences and Preferred Traits.
Psychol Sci
September 2025
Centre for Psychology and Evolution, School of Psychology, University of Queensland.
Assortative mating-the tendency to choose partners similar to oneself-is a ubiquitous phenomenon in mate choice. Despite numerous proposed explanations, a parsimonious mechanism has been overlooked: When individuals choose mates on the basis of heritable traits and preferences, offspring inherit a trait and the corresponding preference from each parent, creating genetic correlations that link having a trait to preferring that same trait. We evaluated this mechanism with an agent-based model simulating 100 generations in which agents, with traits and preferences each uniquely determined by 40 loci, chose reproductive partners based on preferences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLimited inbreeding avoidance at the gamete level despite inbreeding depression in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar).
J Anim Ecol
September 2025
Centre for Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
Inbreeding and the associated increase in homozygosity and potential accumulation of deleterious alleles may reduce fitness in a process known as inbreeding depression. Mechanisms to mitigate reproduction between close relatives, ranging from pre-mating mate choice to post-mating gamete selection, have evolved across taxa. In external fertilisers like Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), where females have limited control over paternity, mechanisms of inbreeding avoidance can be expected to evolve at the gamete level.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComplex choice environments shelter unattractive signallers from sexual selection.
Proc Biol Sci
September 2025
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Saint Paul, MN, USA.
For many animals, options abound when choosing a mate in socially complex environments like a breeding chorus or lek. In such environments, receivers often choose their mate based on individual differences in signal repetition rate. However, signallers also differ in the regularity with which they produce repeated signals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMimetic females do not bear reproductive costs: Challenging the sexual selection hypothesis in female-limited mimetic polymorphism in butterflies.
J Evol Biol
September 2025
The United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan.
Batesian mimicry has been regarded as classic evidence of adaptation by natural selection, in which a palatable species avoids predation by resembling unpalatable species. In some butterfly species, Batesian mimicry is female-limited and mimetic females coexist with male-like (nonmimetic) females. Why do nonmimetic females continue to exist despite the possible differential predation pressure? One possible hypothesis is a trade-off between the anti-predatory defence and mating success.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF