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23 results for “mating opportunity”
Female reproductive fluid increases the opportunities for post-mating sexual selection by prolonging egg fertilization window
<p>Female reproductive fluid, the fluid that surrounds the eggs, has attracted increasing attention for its role in fertilization and post-mating sexual selection through its effects on sperm traits. Surprisingly, however, only a few studies have investigated the effects of female reproductive fluid on the eggs. Yet, these effects might offer great potential to affect fertilization dynamics by, for example, increasing the opportunities for post-mating sexual selection. Here, we determined whether, by extending the egg fertilization window (time available for egg fertilization), the female reproductive fluid could also increase the opportunities for multiple paternity. Using the Zebrafish Danio rerio we first tested the prediction that female reproductive fluid increases the egg fertilization window, and then, using a split-brood design with sperm of two males added at different times after eggs activation, we tested whether the degree of multiple paternity varies in presence or absence of female reproductive fluid. Our results reveal the potential of the female reproductive fluid to increase multiple paternity throughout its effects on the egg fertilization window thus broadening our knowledge of the mechanisms females in externally fertilizing species affect post-mating sexual selection.</p>
Female reproductive fluid increases the opportunities for post-mating sexual selection by prolonging egg fertilization window
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Data from: Balancing risk and reward: mating opportunity influences thermal refuge use in fiddler crabs
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Behavioural thermoregulation can ameliorate thermal stress but is costly. For species that court in a thermally stressful microhabitat, sexual selection via endurance rivalry favours individuals that are able and willing to endure harsh conditions in the courtship habitat, as retreats to a thermal refuge will reduce mating opportunities. The relative costs and benefits of refuge use versus continued courtship in the face of thermal risk, which vary across abiotic and biotic contexts, determine the optimal behavioural strategy. We examined the social and abiotic factors driving behavioural decisions related to thermoregulatory retreat in the fiddler crab <i>Austruca mjoebergi</i>. Male fiddler crabs perform a courtship display on the thermally stressful intertidal sediment surface. Time on the surface, and thus time available for display, was limited by high temperatures; as temperature increased, surface time decreased. Yet when presented with a stimulus female, males were more likely to perform the courtship display, displayed at a higher rate and increased time spent on the surface. These results demonstrate that behavioural<i> </i>decisions related to thermal retreat depend both on the abiotic conditions that influence the degree of thermal stress and on the social conditions that influence the reproductive prospects of the individual.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
Data from: Ecological and social factors constrain spatial and temporal opportunities for mating in a migratory songbird
Many studies of sexual selection assume that individuals have equal mating opportunities and that differences in mating success result from variation in sexual traits. However, the inability of sexual traits to explain variation in male mating success suggests that other factors moderate the strength of sexual selection. Extrapair paternity is common in vertebrates and can contribute to variation in mating success and thus serves as a model for understanding the operation of sexual selection. We developed a spatially explicit, multifactor model of all possible female-male pairings to test the hypothesis that ecological (food availability) and social (breeding density, breeding distance, and the social mate's nest stage) factors influence an individual's opportunity for extrapair paternity in a socially monogamous bird, the black-throated blue warbler, Setophaga caerulescens. A male's probability of siring extrapair young decreased with increasing distance to females, breeding density, and food availability. Males on food-poor territories were more likely to sire extrapair young, and these offspring were produced farther from the male's territory relative to males on food-abundant territories. Moreover, males sired extrapair young mostly during their social mates' incubation stage, especially males on food-abundant territories. This study demonstrates how ecological and social conditions constrain the spatial and temporal opportunities for extrapair paternity that affect variation in mating success and the strength of sexual selection in socially monogamous species.
Data from: Personality traits change after an opportunity to mate
<p>There is growing evidence that personality traits can change throughout the life course in humans and nonhuman animals. However, the proximate and ultimate causes of personality trait change are largely unknown, especially in adults. In a controlled, longitudinal experiment, we tested whether a key life event for adults – mating – can cause personality traits to change in female threespine sticklebacks. We confirmed that there are consistent individual differences in activity, sociability and risk taking, and then compared these personality traits among three groups of females: 1) control females; 2) females that physically mated; 3) females that socially experienced courtship but did not mate. Both the physical experience of mating and the social experience of courtship caused females to become less willing to take risks and less social. To understand the proximate mechanisms underlying these changes, we measured levels of excreted steroids. Both the physical experience of mating and the social experience of courtship caused levels of dihydroxyprogesterone (<span>17α,20β-P)</span> to increase, and females with higher <span>17α,20β-P </span>were less willing to take risks and less social. These results provide experimental evidence that personality traits and their underlying neuroendocrine correlates are influenced by formative social and life-history experiences well into adulthood.</p>
Among-individual variation in flowering phenology affects flowering synchrony and mating opportunity
<p><strong>Premise of the study:</strong> The timing and pattern of a plant's flowering can have important consequences for reproductive success. Variation in flowering phenology may influence the number of prospective mates, the risk of mating with lower quality individuals, and the likelihood of self-pollination. Here we use a common garden experiment to explore within- and among-population variation in phenology. Our work provides new insights into how flowering phenology shapes mating opportunity and flowering synchrony in a self-compatible perennial.</p> <p><strong>Methods:</strong> To quantify variation in flowering phenology we raised progeny from nine populations of<em> Mimulus ringens</em> in a common garden. For each individual, we measured phenological traits including age at flowering onset, daily floral display size, total flower number, and flowering synchrony with other members of the population, and related these traits to mating opportunity. We also tested how individual flowering schedules influence the magnitude of synchrony.</p> <p><strong>Key Results: </strong>Flowering phenology and synchrony varied substantially within and among populations. From day to day, plants often oscillated between large and small daily floral displays. Additionally, flowering schedules of individual plants strongly influenced flowering synchrony and, along with the number of flowering days, markedly affected plants' mating opportunity.</p> <p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Phenological traits such as flowering synchrony can affect the quantity of mating opportunities and may be important targets of natural selection. Our results highlight the need for studies that quantify flowering patterns of individuals as well as populations.</p>
Among-individual variation in flowering phenology affects flowering synchrony and mating opportunity
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Data from: Ecological and social factors constrain spatial and temporal opportunities for mating in a migratory songbird
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Data from: Balancing risk and reward: mating opportunity influences thermal refuge use in fiddler crabs
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Data from: Personality traits change after an opportunity to mate
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Costs of delayed mating opportunities, overripening, and mate choice in Killifish
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Data from: Ecological segregation in a small mammal hybrid zone: habitat-specific mating opportunities and selection against hybrids restrict gene flow on a fine spatial scale
The degree to which closely related species interbreed is determined by a complex interaction of ecological, behavioral, and genetic factors. We examine the degree of interbreeding between two woodrat species, Neotoma bryanti and N. lepida, at a sharp ecological transition. We identify the ecological association of each genotypic class, assess the opportunity for mating between these groups, and test whether they have similar patterns of year-to-year persistence on our study site. We find that 13% of individuals have a hybrid signature but that the two parental populations and backcrosses are highly segregated by habitat type and use. Also, we find that adult hybrids are comparable to parental types in terms of year-to-year persistence on our site but that, among juveniles, significantly fewer hybrids reach adulthood on site compared to their purebred counterparts. Our analyses show that this hybrid zone is maintained by occasional nonassortative mating coupled with hybrid fertility, but that these factors are balanced by lower apparent survival of juvenile hybrids and habitat-based preference or selection that limits heterospecific mating while promoting backcrossing to habitat-specific genotypes. This system presents a novel example of the role that sharp resource gradients play in reproductive isolation and the potential for genetic introgression.
Data from: Extra-pair mating opportunities mediate parenting and mating effort trade-offs in a songbird
<p>In socially monogamous species with bi-parental care, males may face a trade-off between providing parental care and pursuing extra-pair matings. The "parenting-mating trade-off" hypothesis predicts that high-quality males – who have greater potential to gain extra-pair matings, e.g. larger males usually win the competition for extra-pair mating – should reduce parental care and spend more time looking for extra-pair matings. However, the trade-off between parenting and mating efforts may be complicated by variation in the availability of extra-pair mating opportunities. By using field data of hair-crested drongos (<i>Dicrurus hottentottus</i>), a species exhibiting bi-parental incubation behavior, collected in central China from 2010 to 2017, we tested whether the potential negative relationship between male quality and paternal care was dependent on the number of nearby fertile females. We found that male drongos mainly seek extra-pair matings during the incubation period and high-quality individuals (males with longer tarsi) are more likely to sire extra-pair offspring. In agreement with the "parenting-mating trade-off" hypothesis, high-quality males incubated less by recessing longer between incubation bouts. However, this was only the case when sufficient fertile females nearby for extra-pair mating opportunities. Females compensated for reduced male care, but this was independent of male quality. This suggests that the reduction in care by high-quality males might be a direct response to extra-pair mating opportunities rather than facilitated by differential allocation of females. Our results indicate that individual quality and available mating opportunities may shape the optimal trade-off between parental care and seeking additional matings for males.</p>
Extraordinarily precise nematode sex ratios: adaptive responses to vanishingly rare mating opportunities
<p><span>Sex ratio theory predicts both mean sex ratio and variance under a range of population structures. Here, we compare two genera of phoretic nematodes (<i>Parasitodiplogaster </i>and <i>Ficophagus </i>spp.) associated with twelve fig-pollinating wasp species in Panama. The host wasps exhibit classic Local Mate Competition: only inseminated females disperse from natal figs, and their offspring form mating pools that consist of scores of the adult offspring contributed by one or a few foundress mothers. In contrast, in both nematode genera only sexually undifferentiated juveniles disperse and their mating pools routinely consist of ten or fewer adults.</span> <span>Across all mating pool sizes, the sex ratios observed in both nematode genera are consistently female-biased (~0.34 males), which is markedly less female-biased than is often observed in the host wasps (~0.10 males). In further contrast with their hosts, variances in nematode sex ratios are also consistently precise (significantly less than binomial). The constraints associated with predictably small mating pools within highly subdivided populations appear to select for precise sex ratios that contribute both to the reproductive success of individual nematodes, and to the evolutionary persistence of nematode species. We suggest that some form of environmental sex determination underlies these precise sex ratios.</span></p>
Data from: Mating opportunity increases with synchrony of flowering among years more than synchrony within years in a nonmasting perennial
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Data from: Ecological segregation in a small mammal hybrid zone: habitat-specific mating opportunities and selection against hybrids restrict gene flow on a fine spatial scale
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Data from: Resource availability, mating opportunity, and sexual selection intensity influence the expression of male alternative reproductive tactics
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Extraordinarily precise nematode sex ratios: adaptive responses to vanishingly rare mating opportunities
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Data from: Extra-pair mating opportunities mediate parenting and mating effort trade-offs in a songbird
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Data from: Female-induced remote regulation of sperm physiology may provide opportunities for gamete-level mate choice
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