Data from: Testing for a genetic response to sexual selection in a wild Drosophila population

In accordance with the consensus that sexual selection is responsible for the rapid evolution of display traits on macroevolutionary scales, microevolutionary studies suggest sexual selection is a widespread and often strong form of directional selection in nature. However, empirical evidence for the contemporary evolution of sexually selected traits remains weak. In this study we used a novel application of quantitative genetic breeding designs to test for a genetic response to sexual selection on eight chemical display traits in a field population of the fly, Drosophila serrata. Using our quantitative genetic approach, we were able to detect a genetically-based difference in means between groups of males descended from either successful or random wild males for one of these display traits, the diene (Z,Z)-5,9-C27:2. Our experimental results, in combination with previous lab studies on this system, suggest that both natural selection and sexual selection may be influencing the evolutionary trajectories of these traits in nature, limiting the capacity for a contemporary evolutionary response.