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FIGURE 12. Philoscirtus cordipennis spinosus n. ssp. A, B. Male C, D, E. Female F in New species of Mecopodinae (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae) from Tanzania

FIGURE 12. Philoscirtus cordipennis spinosus n. ssp. A, B. Male C, D, E. Female F. Male last instar.

FIGURE 5 in Redescription of the female, male, larva and pupa of Sabethes (Sabethoides) glaucodaemon (Dyar & Shannon) (Diptera: Culicidae) and description of the female genitalia

FIGURE 5. Pupa of Sabethes glaucodaemon. (A) Cephalothorax; (B) metanotum and abdomen. Abbreviations: CT, cephalothorax; GL, genital lobe; Mtn, metanotum; P, paddle; I–VIII, abdominal segments (terga on left; sterna on right); 1–14, setal numbers.

FIGURE 4 in Redescription of the female, male, larva and pupa of Sabethes (Sabethoides) glaucodaemon (Dyar & Shannon) (Diptera: Culicidae) and description of the female genitalia

FIGURE 4. Male genitalia of Sabethes glaucodaemon. (A) Paraprocts; (B) tergum VIII; (C) sternum VIII; (D) tergum and sternum IX. Abbreviations: Ppr, paraproct; S-VIII, sternum VIII; S-IX, sternum IX; Te-VIII, tergum VIII; Te-IX, tergum IX.

FIGURE 3 in Redescription of the female, male, larva and pupa of Sabethes (Sabethoides) glaucodaemon (Dyar & Shannon) (Diptera: Culicidae) and description of the female genitalia

FIGURE 3. Male of Sabethes glaucodaemon. (A) Habitus; (B) gonocoxite and gonostylus, mesal view; (C) gonocoxite and gonostylus, mesal view, insert: higher magnification showing cockscomb-like membranous process; (D) aedeagus, parameres and basal pieces, insert: higher magnification showing submedian and apical tergal arms. Abbreviations: A–E, C and M, lobes of gonostylus; BML, basal mesal lobe; Gc, gonocoxite; Gs, gonostylus; fp, fimbriated process of lobe C; tms, tergomesal setae of gonocoxite.

opencc-zeroJun 2020View details →

Data from: Females of a solitary bee reject males to collect food for offspring

The time dedicated to courtship and copulation is the most general cost of mating for females. However, quantitative estimates of this cost and the consequences for female mating behavior have been investigated for only a few model organisms, and mostly under laboratory conditions. We determined the costs of copulations and persistent courtship by males in terms of time for females of the solitary bee Anthrenoides micans. We estimated the rate and duration of male mating behaviors and the consequences for sexual interactions for females with respect to the loss of foraging opportunity in the wild. Males invested most of their time searching for mates and intercepted foraging females every three minutes. Copulas lasted on average 10 times longer than the time females took to resist male mating attempts. Despite the high frequency of these rejections (82%), females spent three-fold more time copulating than rejecting males. Considering the rate of encounters with males and the mean duration of flower visits by females, we estimated that females would perform 64% fewer flower visits/hour if they accepted all copulation attempts. The loss of time is especially significant in the natural habitat of the species, where host cacti blossom for extraordinary short periods of time and females compete with other cacti-specialized bees and conspecifics. Because the offspring production of a female solitary bee depends on its pollen collection capacity, reduced foraging performance directly influences female reproductive success.

opencc-zeroJul 2020View details →

Data from: Hoopoe (Upupa epops) male feeding effort is related to female cosmetic egg colouration

Avian eggshell colouration might function as a post-mating sexually selected signal of female quality, influencing male parental investment and, hence, reproductive success. This hypothesis has been tested for intrinsic eggshell pigments as biliverdin (blue-green colouration) and/or protoporphyrin (brown coloured spots), but never for colourations applied post-laying. Post-laying staining colouration due to, for instance, uropygial secretion of the female could reflect its phenotypic properties and, thus, might be a cue for male investment in reproduction. In hoopoes, the uropygial gland of incubating females hosts symbiotic bacteria that are responsible for the brown colour of their uropygial secretion and of the eggshells, as they cover their bluish-grey eggshells with gland secretion after laying. The secretion protects embryos from pathogenic trans-shell infections and, thus, egg colouration may function as a cue or even as a post-mating sexually selected signal of antimicrobial potential in hoopoes. In a wild hoopoe population breeding in nest boxes in Spain, we test this hypothesis by exploring whether egg colour predicts male parental investment. In accordance with the hypothesis, we found that the amount of food provided by males to incubating females was higher in nests with less saturated eggshell colours. This relationship was affected by female body condition. High quality females in terms of body condition and/or in secretion colour obtained better males in terms of provisioning effort during incubation. Given that eggshell saturation is negatively related to density of bacterial symbionts in uropygial secretions, one possibility is that males may regulate their parental investment in accordance to the expected characteristics of mutualistic bacteria hosted in uropygial glands and deposited on eggshells. We discuss alternative explanations for our results, concluding that the post-mating sexual selection hypothesis is the most likely but experimental modification of egg colour is needed to test it further.

Python Script used in: Evolution of nuptial gifts and its coevolutionary dynamics with male-like persistence traits of females for multiple mating

Many male animals donate nutritive materials during courtship or mating to their female mates. Donation of large-sized gifts, though costly to prepare, can result in increased sperm transfer during mating and delayed remating of the females, resulting in a higher paternity. Nuptial gifting sometimes causes severe female-female competition for obtaining gifts (i.e., sex-role reversal in mate competition) and female polyandry, changing the intensity of sperm competition and the resultant paternity gains. We built a theoretical model to analyze such coevolutionary feedbacks between nuptial gift size (male trait) and propensity for multiple mating (female trait). Our genetically explicit, individual-based computer simulations demonstrate that a positive correlation between donated gift size and the resultant paternity gain is a requisite for the co-occurrence of large-sized gifts and females' competitive multiple mating for the gifts. When gift donation imposes monandry, exaggeration of nuptial gift size also occurs under the assumption that the last male monopolizes paternity, although it reduces mating opportunities, also occurs under the assumption that the last male monopolizes paternity. We also analyzed the causes and consequences of the evolution of a female persistence trait in trading of nuptial gifts, that is, double receptacles for nuptial gifts known to occur in an insect group with a "female penis" (Neotrogla spp.).

Data from: Older males are not only attractive to but also aggressive toward females in Gnatocerus cornutus

In theory, a male should change the allocation of fighting and mating efforts in relation to his age. Thus, the consequences of sexual selection may be complicated by changes in the male resource allocation due to aging. However, previous studies have focused on changes in female mate choice and male-male competition with aging separately, and the impact of aging on the relationship between mate choice and male competition is unknown. Here, we examined how male competitiveness and attractiveness and their relationship changes over male lifespan in Gnatocerus cornutus. In this species, males perform courtship displays and fight rival males for mates. Older males are more competitive in male fighting and aggressive toward females than younger males. The aggression is also directed toward females. Almost all older males who attacked a female failed to copulate, while younger males never attacked the females. As a result, copulation success decreased with age. When an older male did not mistake a female for a male, he exhibited more frequent courtship. However, mating with older males imposed direct costs on females in terms of both fecundity and lifespan, with no offsetting indirect benefits for her offspring. The courtship behavior of older males does not supply females with cues for mate-choice benefits but are used to coerce females into mating. Our results suggest that male–male competition constrains female preference for older males. Thus, female choice and male–male competition may not be reinforcing in older G. cornutus males.

Female ornaments: is red skin color attractive to males and related to condition in rhesus macaques?

Sexual selection produces extravagant male traits, such as colorful ornaments, via female mate choice. More rarely, in mating systems in which males allocate mating effort between multiple females, female ornaments may evolve via male mate choice. Females of many anthropoid primates exhibit ornaments that indicate intra-individual cyclical fertility, but which have also been proposed to function as inter-individual quality signals. Rhesus macaque females are one such species, exhibiting cyclical facial color variation that indicates ovulatory status, but in which the function of inter-individual variation is unknown. We collected digital images of the faces of 32 rhesus macaque adult females. We assessed mating rates, and consortship by males, according to female face coloration. We also assessed whether female coloration was linked to physical (skinfold fat, BMI) or physiological (fecal glucocorticoid metabolite fGCM, urinary C-peptide concentrations) condition. We found that redder-faced females were mated more frequently, and consorted for longer periods by top-ranked males. Redder females had higher fGCM concentrations, perhaps related to their increased mating activity and consequent energy mobilization, and blood-flow. Prior analyses have shown that female facial redness is a heritable trait, and that redder-faced females have higher annual fecundity, while other evidence suggests that color expression is likely to be a signal rather than a cue. Collectively, the available evidence suggests that female coloration has evolved at least in part via male mate choice. Its evolution as a sexually-selected ornament attractive to males is probably attributable to the high female reproductive synchrony found in this species.

Male and female genotype and a genotype-by-genotype interaction mediate the effects of mating on cellular but not humoral immunity in female decorated crickets

Sexually antagonistic coevolution is predicted to lead to the divergence of male and female genotypes related to the effects of substances transferred by males at mating on female physiology. The outcome of mating should thus depend on the specific combination of mating genotypes. Although mating has been shown to influence female immunity in diverse insect taxa, a male-female genotype-by-genotype effect on female immunity post-mating remains largely unexplored. Here, we investigate the effects of mating on female decorated cricket baseline immunity and the potential for a male-by-female genotype interaction affecting this response. Females from three distinct genotypic backgrounds were left unmated or singly mated in a fully reciprocal design to males from the same three genotypic backgrounds. Hemocytes and hemocyte microaggregations were quantified for female cellular immunity, and phenoloxidase, involved in melanization, and antibacterial activity for humoral immunity. In this system, female cellular immunity was more reactive to mating, and mating effects were genotype dependent. Specifically, for hemocytes, a genotype-mating status interaction mediated the effect of mating per se, and a significant male-female genotype-by-genotype interaction determined hemocyte depletion post-mating. Microaggregations were influenced by the female's genotype or that of her mate. Female humoral immune measures were unaffected, indicating the propensity for post-mating effects on female is dependent on the component of baseline immunity. The genotype-by-genotype effect on hemocytes supports a role of sexual conflict in post-mating immune suppression, suggesting divergence of male genotypes with respect to modification of female post-mating immunity, and divergence of female genotypes in resistance to these effects.

opencc-zeroNov 2020View details →

Data for: Male coercion and female injury in a sexually cannibalistic mantis

Sexual conflict can generate male traits that enhance mating success but lead to injury in females. Pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism—where females eat males without mating—has the potential to select for harmful coercive traits as well, but few examples are known. Here, we show that males of the highly cannibalistic Springbok mantis, Miomantis caffra, wrestle females during pre-mating interactions. We find that most initial contacts between males and females involve a violent struggle whereby each sex tries be the first to grasp hold of the other with their raptorial forelegs. When females win the struggle, they always cannibalise males. However, when males grasp females first, they dramatically increase the chance of mating. We also find striking evidence that males wound females with their fore-tibial claws during struggles, resulting in haemolymph loss and scar tissue formation. Taken together, our results show how males can overcome the threat of cannibalism by coercively wrestling females. We argue that pre-copulatory injury in this species is likely a negative pleiotropic side-effect of selection on claws to capture prey.

opencc-zeroNov 2020View details →

Fitness implications of nonlethal injuries in scorpions: females, but not males pay reproductive costs

The ability to detach a body part in response to a predation attempt is known as autotomy, and it is perhaps the most intensively studied form of nonlethal injury in animals. Although autotomy enhances survival, it may impose reproductive costs to both males and females. We experimentally investigated how autotomy affects the reproductive success of males and females of a scorpion species. Individuals of Ananteris balzani autotomize the last abdominal segments ("tail"), losing the anus and leading to lifelong constipation since regeneration does not occur. Although male "tail" is used during courtship and sperm transfer, autotomy had no effect on male mating success. The combined effect of increased mortality and reduced fecundity resulted in autotomized females producing nearly 35% less offspring than intact females. In conclusion, the negative effects of "tail" autotomy are clearly sex-dependent, probably because the factors that influence reproductive success in males and females are markedly different.

opencc-zeroNov 2020View details →

Data: Sexual selection increased offspring production via evolution of male and female traits

Phenotypic evolution driven by sexual selection can impact the fitness of individuals and thus population performance through multiple mechanisms, but it is unresolved how and when sexual selection affects offspring production by females.We examined the effects of sexual selection on offspring production by females using replicated experimental evolutionary lines of Callosobruchus chinensis that were kept under polygamy (with sexual selection) or monogamy (without sexual selection) for 21 generations. We found that polygamous-line pairs produced more offspring than monogamous-line pairs, because polygamous-line beetles evolved to be larger than monogamous-line beetles, and larger females were more fecund. Egg hatchability did not differ between polygamous- and monogamous-line pairs, as a result of the positive and negative effects of sexual selection cancelling out. When mated with an individual from a common tester line, both polygamous-line females and males showed higher hatchability in resultant eggs than monogamous ones. Further, cohabitation with a male reduced egg hatchability, and this effect was more pronounced in polygamous- than in monogamous-line males. These results demonstrate multiple mechanisms by which sexual selection affects female fitness, with the net effect being positive. Analyses of how development time, body size and male genital morphology were influenced by selection regime suggest that these results arose from both evolution via good-gene processes and sexually antagonistic selection. Our results are also consistent with the hypothesis that the fitness consequences of sexual selection for females are dependent on the evolutionary history of the population.

opennotspecifiedOct 2020View details →

→ Fig. 5. Hypanthracos meridionalis Grazia & Campos, 1996: A–F: male terminalia: A – D: dorsal; B – E: posterior: C – F: ventral; G – I: male genitalia: G: dorsal; H: lateral; I: ventral; J: female terminalia; K: female receptaculum seminis and ausenwand. Scale bars: A – F = 1.0 mm; G – I: 0.01 mm; J – K = 0.5 mm. in Systematics of the Mecocephala group (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) based on a phylogenetic perspective: Inclusion of Hypanthracos, description of three new genera, and redescription of Ogmocoris

→ Fig. 5. Hypanthracos meridionalis Grazia & Campos, 1996: A–F: male terminalia: A – D: dorsal; B – E: posterior: C – F: ventral; G – I: male genitalia: G: dorsal; H: lateral; I: ventral; J: female terminalia; K: female receptaculum seminis and ausenwand. Scale bars: A – F = 1.0 mm; G – I: 0.01 mm; J – K = 0.5 mm.

FIGURES 10–16 in Description of Coeliccia natgeo sp. nov. from Central Vietnam with keys to the males and females of the hayashii-group (Odonata: Zygoptera: Platycnemididae)

FIGURES 10–16. Structural characters of Coeliccia natgeo sp. nov. [10–12] holotype ³ & [13–16], paratype ♀. (10), S9–10 & anal appendages, lateral view; (11), S9–10 & anal appendages, dorsal view; (12), genital ligula, ventral view; (13, 14), pro- thorax; (15, 16), abdominal tip.

FIGURES 8–9 in Description of Coeliccia natgeo sp. nov. from Central Vietnam with keys to the males and females of the hayashii-group (Odonata: Zygoptera: Platycnemididae)

FIGURES 8–9. Head and thorax of Coeliccia natgeo sp. nov., lateral view. (8), holotype ³ & (9), paratype ♀.

FIGURES 4–7 in Description of Coeliccia natgeo sp. nov. from Central Vietnam with keys to the males and females of the hayashii-group (Odonata: Zygoptera: Platycnemididae)

FIGURES 4–7. Head of Coeliccia natgeo sp. nov. in dorsal & frontal view. (4, 5), holotype ³ & (6, 7), paratype ♀.

FIGURE 1 in Description of Coeliccia natgeo sp. nov. from Central Vietnam with keys to the males and females of the hayashii-group (Odonata: Zygoptera: Platycnemididae)

FIGURE 1. Distribution of Coeliccia natgeo sp. nov. in Vietnam (arranged from Google Earth Pro., Version 7.3).

FIGURES 19–32 in Description of Coeliccia natgeo sp. nov. from Central Vietnam with keys to the males and females of the hayashii-group (Odonata: Zygoptera: Platycnemididae)

FIGURES 19–32. Posterior pronotal prothoracic lobes of females of the hayashii-group, ♀. (19), C. schorri (rearranged from Phan & To 2019), lateral view; (20, 21), C. natgeo, dorsal & lateral view; (22), C. mattii (rearranged from Phan & Kompier 2016), oblique dorsal view; (23, 24), C. coronata, Chu Yang Sin, dorsal & lateral view; (25, 26), C. duytan, Chu Mom Ray, dorsal & lateral view; (27, 28), C. hayashii, Ko Roong, dorsal & lateral view; (29, 30), C. diomedea, Dak Glei, dorsal & lateral view; (31, 32), C. lecongcoi, Ngoc Linh, dorsal & lateral view.