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129 results for “Female preference”
Data from: Male and female bees show large differences in floral preference
<p>Intraspecific variation in foraging niche can drive food web dynamics and ecosystem processes. In particular, male and female animals can exhibit different, often cascading, impacts on their interaction partners. Despite this, studies of plant-pollinator interaction networks have focused on the partitioning of the floral community between pollinator species, with little attention paid to intraspecific variation in plant preference between male and female bees. We designed a field study to evaluate the strength and prevalence of sexually dimorphic foraging, and particularly resource preferences, in bees. We observed bees visiting flowers in semi-natural meadows in New Jersey, USA. To detect differences in flower use against a shared background of resource (flower) availability, we maximized the number of interactions observed within narrow spatio-temporal windows. To distinguish observed differences in bee use of flower species, which can reflect abundance patterns and sampling effects, from underlying differences in bee preferences, we analyzed our data with both a permutation-based null model and random effects models. We found that the diets of male and female bees of the same species were often dissimilar as the diets of different species of bees. Furthermore, we demonstrate differences in preference between male and female bees. We show that intraspecific differences in preference can be robustly identified among hundreds of unique species-species interactions, without precisely quantifying resource availability, and despite high phenological turnover of both bees and plant bloom. Given the large differences in both flower use and preferences between male and female bees, ecological sex differences should be integrated into studies of bee demography, plant pollination, and coevolutionary relationships between flowers and insects.</p>
Fig. 2 in Feeding preference of adult females of ribbonfish Trichiurus lepturus through prey proximate-composition and caloric values
Fig. 2. Multivariate correspondence analysis considering the proximate-composition and prey species of Trichiurus lepturus in northern Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Cb: Chirocentrodon bleekerianus; Dp: Doryteuthis plei; Lg: Lycengraulis grossidens; Ph: Pellona harroweri; Pp: Peprilus paru; Tl: Trichiurus lepturus and Xk: Xiphopenaeus kroyeri. CAR = carbohydrate.
Fig. 1 in Feeding preference of adult females of ribbonfish Trichiurus lepturus through prey proximate-composition and caloric values
Fig. 1. Map of Brazil with Rio de Janeiro State and its northern coast, where adult female specimens of Trichiurus lepturus and their prey species were collected (21º18'S-22º25'S; until 50 m depth).
Protein preference data for male and female mice
<p>These data are from experiments studying protein preference and plasma FGF21 levels in protein-restricted male and female mice conducted at UiT the Arctic University of Norway. These findings will be published Volcko & McCutcheon (2022) bioRxiv. Detailed methods for the experiment can be found in this paper. Full citation to a peer-reviewed publication is expected to follow. Briefly, data are from sessions licking different solutions (casein and/or maltodextrin) in operant chambers, recorded on Med Associates hardware. Accompanying analysis code as a Jupyter notebook is available on Github (https://github.com/mccutcheonlab/ARP). </p> <p>The data are provided as a compressed zip file containing the following:</p> <ul> <li>Folder with raw datafiles from sessions with a single bottle of either casein or maltodextrin, and two-bottle choice tests</li> <li>Excel file with metadata to accompany each raw datafile (<strong>ARP3 and ARP5 conditioning and preference metafile.xls</strong>)</li> </ul> <p>The raw datafiles are Med Associates files in the stripped format.</p> <p><strong>ARP3 and ARP5 conditioning and preference metafile.xls</strong> contains sheets (<em>metafile_exp1</em> and <em>metafile_exp2</em>) with the following information for each datafile:</p> <ul> <li>filename</li> <li>mouse ID</li> <li>date</li> <li>diet group (NR, non-restricted or PR, protein-restricted)</li> <li>sex</li> <li>cycle stage (for females in the preference test)</li> <li>nutrient in the left bottle</li> <li>nutrient in the right bottle</li> <li>flavor of the solution in the left bottle</li> <li>flavor of the solution in the right bottle</li> <li>number of licks to the left bottle</li> <li>number of licks to the right bottle</li> <li>phase of the experiment (conditioning sessions or preference test)</li> </ul> <p><strong>ARP3 and ARP5 conditioning and preference metafile.xls</strong> also contains sheets (<em>food_intake, BW, female_cycle</em> and <em>FGF21</em>) with data from food intake measurements, body weight measurements, change in food intake and body weight over two cycle in female mice, and plasma FGF21 levels.</p>
Data From: Females alter their mate preferences depending on hybridization risk
<p><span>Mating with another species is often maladaptive because it generally results in no or low-fitness offspring. When hybridization is sufficiently costly, individuals should avoid mating with heterospecifics even if it reduces their ability to mate with high-quality conspecifics that resemble heterospecifics. Here, we used spadefoot toads, <em>Spea multiplicata</em>, to evaluate whether females alter their preferences for conspecific male sexual signals (call rate) depending on heterospecific presence. When presented with conspecific signals against a background including both conspecific and heterospecific signals, females preferred male traits that were most dissimilar to heterospecifics—even though these signals are potentially associated with lower-quality mates. However, when these same females were presented with a background that included only conspecific signals, some females switched their preferences, choosing conspecific signals that were exaggerated and indicative of high-quality conspecific mates. Because only some females switched their preferences between these two chorus treatments, there was no population-level preference for exaggerated male signals in the absence of heterospecifics. Thus, hybridization risk can impact mate choice and thereby alter patterns of sexual selection. These results also emphasize that reproductive barriers between species (such as mate choice) can be context-dependent, with important implications for the origins and maintenance of species boundaries.</span></p>
Fig. 1 in Reproductive success and female preference in the amazonian cichlid angel fish, Pterophyllum scalare (Lichtenstein, 1823)
Fig. 1. Survival of the eggs in relation to the aggressiveness of experienced males (Pearson, p <0.01).
Fig. 2 in Reproductive success and female preference in the amazonian cichlid angel fish, Pterophyllum scalare (Lichtenstein, 1823)
Fig. 2. Survival of the eggs in relation to care provided by experienced males through aeration (Pearson, p <0.01).
Data from: Female preference for males with lower pattern contrast follows Weber's law of proportional processing in an ornate jumping spider
<p>According to Weber's law of proportional processing, perceptual discrimination between stimuli of different magnitudes is based on their proportional differences in magnitude (not absolute differences). Proportional processing operates in various sensory modalities and behavioural contexts. However, whether female mate preference for colour patterns in animals follows Weber's law of proportional processing remains untested. </p> <p>We addressed this research gap using the jade jumping spider, <em>Siler semiglaucus</em>, whose males exhibit remarkable sexually selected colour patterns and whose females show preferences for males with low abdomen pattern contrast (pattern contrast is defined as the spatial feature of the relative abundance of two adjacent colour patches). By manipulating the dorsal abdomen colour patterns of <em>S. semiglaucus</em> males, we created males with varying abdomen pattern contrasts. We then assessed female preference for males that varied in both absolute and proportional differences in pattern contrast.</p> <p>We found that females preferred males with lower abdomen pattern contrasts and discriminated between males based on both absolute and proportional differences in pattern contrast. While proportional difference alone was not a significant predictor of female mate choice, discrimination based on proportional difference, coupled with absolute difference had a greater influence on female mate preference than absolute difference alone. </p> <p>Hence, our findings suggest that <em>S. semiglaucus</em> female preference for males with lower pattern contrast follows Weber's law, and female discrimination may have the potential to limit the exaggeration of sexually selected colour patterns. </p>
Data from: Female preference for males with lower pattern contrast follows Weber’s law of proportional processing in an ornate jumping spider
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Data from: Male and female bees show large differences in floral preference
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Data From: Females alter their mate preferences depending on hybridization risk
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Data for: Parasite prevalence depends on female preference: Integrating parasite-mediated sexual selection and infectious disease dynamics
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Colorful traits in avian females, individual condition, reproductive performance, and male mate preferences: A meta-analytic approach
<p>Colorful ornaments in females are suggested to have evolved and be maintained by sexual selection. Although several studies have evaluated this idea evidence is still equivocal. Results from empirical studies have been compilated in reviews, but quantitative analyses have seldom been performed. Here, using a meta-analytic approach, we show that evidence from empirical studies conducted in birds, supports the ideas that colorful female ornaments are positively associated with individual condition, reproductive performance, and male-mate preferences. Hence, females' colorful traits, in birds, likely evolved and are maintained by sexual selection.</p>
Data from: Divergent male and female mate preferences do not explain incipient speciation between lizard lineages
<p>Diversification in sexual signals is often taken as evidence for the importance of sexual selection in speciation. However, in order for sexual selection to generate reproductive isolation between populations, both signals and mate preferences must diverge together. Furthermore, assortative mating may result from multiple behavioural mechanisms, including female mate preferences, male mate preferences and male-male competition; yet their relative contributions are rarely evaluated. Here, we explored the role of mate preferences and male competitive ability as potential barriers to gene flow between two divergent lineages of the tawny dragon lizard, Ctenophorus decresii, which differ in male throat coloration. We found stronger behavioural barriers to pairings between southern lineage males and northern lineage females than between northern males and southern females, indicating incomplete and asymmetric behavioural isolating barriers. These results were driven by both male and female mate preferences rather than lineage differences in male competitive ability. Intrasexual selection is therefore unlikely to drive the outcome of secondary contact in C. decresii, despite its widely acknowledged importance in lizards. Our results are consistent with the emerging view that although both male and female mate preferences can diverge alongside sexual signals, speciation is rarely driven by divergent sexual selection alone.</p> <p> </p>
Female mate preferences do not predict male sexual signals across populations
<p>New species can arise when female preferences and male sexual signals diverge across populations and thereby reduce mating between populations. Under this hypothesized mechanism for speciation, mate preferences and male signals should be correlated, but divergent, across populations. We evaluated this prediction using spadefoot toads (Spea multiplicata). We measured a sexually-selected male signal (call rate) for which female preferences are known to vary across populations in response to hybridization risk. Contrary to expectation, we found no correlation between male call rate and female preferences across populations. We discuss possible mechanisms of this pattern, including the effect of gene flow from heterospecifics on male call rate. Our results suggest that, even when populations vary in mating traits, the independent evolution of female preferences and male sexual signals might impede reproductive isolation between populations. </p>
Data from: Sympatry and parapatry among rocky reef cichlids of Lake Victoria explained by female mating preferences
<p><span>Work on the Lake Victoria cichlids <em>Pundamilia nyererei</em> (red dorsum males, deeper water), <em>Pundamilia pundamilia</em> (blue males, shallower water) and related species pairs has provided insights into processes of speciation. Here, we investigate female mating behaviour of five <em>Pundamilia </em>species and four of their F1-hybrids through mate choice trials and paternity testing. We discuss the results in the context of the geography of speciation and coexistence. Complete assortative mating was observed among all sympatric species. Parapatric species with similar depth habitat distributions interbred whereas other parapatric and allopatric species showed complete assortative mating. F1-hybrids mated exclusively with species accepted by females of the parental species. Although consistent with reinforcement in sympatry, a closer look at our results suggests otherwise and it is more likely that pre-existing female preferences influence which taxa can co-exist in sympatry. Regardless of the mechanism, mating preferences may influence species distribution in potentially hybridizing taxa, such as in the adaptive radiations of cichlid fish. We suggest that this at least partly explains why some species fail to establish breeding populations in locations where they are occasionally recorded. Our result support the notion that mating preferences of potentially cross-breeding species ought to be included in coexistence theory.</span></p>
Data from: Ultraviolet signaling in a butterfly is preferred by females and conveys male genetic quality
<p>Indicator models of sexual selection posit that females chose males on the basis of traits that reveal male genetic quality and thereby enjoy increased offspring production. Here we report that females of the butterfly Eurema hecabe receive indirect benefits from choosing males based on their UV wing colouration, a heritable and condition-dependent trait in this species. We first used a large laboratory-bred pedigree to demonstrate a per-family association between inbreeding and male UV trait value. Females exerted choice for UV-bright males within this protocol, and average male UV trait value increased over six consecutive generations presumably due to such selection and despite an increasing rate of pedigree-wide inbreeding. We then experimentally imposed a standard strength of inbreeding upon lines of divergent male UV trait value. Inbreeding depressed the siring performance of low-UV treatment males more severely and resulted in a marginal reduction of their UV brightness, which rebounded sharply following subsequent outcrossing. These findings are consistent with the ornament-based signaling of genetic quality as a function of underlying individual-level mutational load.</p>
Code for "The significant role of post-pairing male behaviour on the evolution of male preferences and female traits"
<p>This project page archives Mathematica code to replicate the analyses and figures of "The significant role of post-pairing male behaviour on the evolution of male preferences and female traits" by Nan Lyu, D. Justin Yeh, Huw Lloyd, and Yue-Hua Sun appearing in Communications Biology. All figures from the manuscript (and its supplement) can be obtained by running the code.</p>
Data from: female preference for super-sized male ornaments and its implications for the evolution of ornament allometry
<p><span>It has been argued that disproportionately larger ornaments in bigger males—positive allometry—is the outcome of sexual selection operating on the size of condition dependent traits. We reviewed the literature and found a general lack of empirical testing of the assumed link between female preferences for large ornaments and a pattern of positive allometry in male ornamentation. We subsequently conducted a manipulative experiment by leveraging the unusual terrestrial fish, <em>Alticus </em>sp. cf. <em>simplicirrus</em>, on the island of Rarotonga. Males in this species present a prominent head crest to females during courtship, and the size of this head crest in the genus more broadly exhibits the classic pattern of positive allometry. We created realistic male models standardized in body size but differing in head crest size based on the most extreme allometric scaling recorded for the genus. This included a crest size well outside the observed range for the study population (super-sized). The stimuli were presented to free-living females in a manner that mimicked the spatial distribution of courting males. Females directed greater attention to the male stimulus that exhibited the super-sized crest, with little difference in attention direct to other size treatments. These data appear to be the only experimental evidence from the wild of a female preference function that has been implicitly assumed to drive selection that results in the evolution of positive allometry in male ornamentation.</span></p>
Reduced sexual size dimorphism in a pipefish population where males do not prefer larger females
<p><span>Within a species' distribution, populations are often exposed to diverse environments and may thus experience different sources of both natural and sexual selection. These differences are likely to impact the balance between costs and benefits to individuals seeking reproduction, thus entailing evolutionary repercussions. Here, we look into an unusual population (Baltic Sea) of the broadnosed pipefish, <i>Syngnathus typhle</i>, where males do not seem to select females based on size and hypothesise that this pattern may derive from a reduction of direct benefits to the male. We further hypothesise that if larger females do not persistently secure a higher reproductive success, either through pre- or post-copulatory sexual selection, a decrease in sexual size dimorphism in the Baltic population should be apparent, especially when contrasted with a well-studied population, inhabiting similar latitudes (Swedish west coast), where males prefer larger females.</span></p> <p>We found that, in the Baltic population, variation in female quality is low. We were unable to find differences in abortion rates or protein concentration in oocytes produced by females of contrasting sizes. Direct benefits from mating with large partners seem, thus, reduced in the Baltic population. We also found no evidence of any post-copulatory mechanism that could favour larger mothers as embryo development was unrelated to female size. While female size can still be selected through intrasexual competition or fecundity selection, the pressure for large female body size seems to be lower in the Baltic. Accordingly, we found a noticeable decrease in sexual size dimorphism in the Baltic population. We conclude that, although far from negating the significance of other selective process, sexual selection seems to have a decisive role in supporting pipefish sexual size asymmetries.</p>
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Allen Brain Atlas
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International Brain Laboratory public data
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OpenNeuro
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