Department of Biology, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2012;7(1):e28690. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0028690. Epub 2012 Jan 11.
While parasites and immunity are widely believed to play important roles in the evolution of male ornaments, their potential influence on systems where male weaponry is the object of sexual selection is poorly understood. We experimentally infect larval broad-horned flour beetles with a tapeworm and study the consequent effects on: 1) adult male morphology 2) male-male contests for mating opportunities, and 3) induction of the innate immune system. We find that infection significantly reduces adult male size in ways that are expected to reduce mating opportunities in nature. The sum of our morphological, competition, and immunological data indicate that during a life history stage where no new resources are acquired, males allocate their finite resources in a way that increases future mating potential.
虽然寄生虫和免疫被广泛认为在雄性装饰物的进化中发挥着重要作用，但它们对雄性武器成为性选择对象的系统的潜在影响还知之甚少。我们用绦虫感染幼虫宽角粉甲虫，并研究其对以下方面的后续影响：1）成年雄性形态；2）雄性为交配机会进行的雄性间竞争；3）先天免疫系统的诱导。我们发现，感染会显著降低成年雄性的体型，这可能会减少自然界中雄性的交配机会。我们的形态学、竞争和免疫学数据总和表明，在没有获得新资源的生命周期阶段，雄性会以一种增加未来交配潜力的方式分配其有限的资源。
