Sinclair Chelsea S, Lisa Suriya F, Pischedda Alison
Department of Biology Barnard College Columbia University New York USA.
Ecol Evol. 2021 Nov 10;11(23):16981-16992. doi: 10.1002/ece3.8334. eCollection 2021 Dec.
Although females are traditionally thought of as the choosy sex, there is increasing evidence in many species that males will preferentially court or mate with certain females over others when given a choice. In the fruit fly, , males discriminate between potential mating partners based on a number of female traits, including species, mating history, age, and condition. Interestingly, many of these male preferences are affected by the male's previous sexual experiences, such that males increase courtship toward types of females that they have previously mated with and decrease courtship toward types of females that have previously rejected them. . males also show courtship and mating preferences for larger females over smaller females, likely because larger females have higher fecundity. It is unknown, however, whether this preference shows behavioral plasticity based on the male's sexual history as we see for other male preferences. Here, we manipulate the sexual experience of . males and test whether this manipulation has any effect on the strength of male mate choice for large females. We find that sexually inexperienced males have a robust courtship preference for large females that is unaffected by previous experience mating with, or being rejected by, females of differing sizes. Given that female body size is one of the most common targets of male mate choice across insect species, our experiments with . may provide insight into how these preferences develop and evolve.
传统上，人们认为雌性是挑剔的性别，但越来越多的证据表明，在许多物种中，雄性在有选择的情况下会优先追求某些雌性或与某些雌性交配，而不是其他雌性。在果蝇中，雄性会根据一些雌性特征，包括物种、交配史、年龄和身体状况，来区分潜在的交配对象。有趣的是，雄性的许多这些偏好会受到其先前性经历的影响，也就是说，雄性会增加对它们先前与之交配过的雌性类型的求爱行为，而减少对先前拒绝过它们的雌性类型的求爱行为。此外，雄性对体型较大的雌性表现出比对体型较小的雌性更强的求爱和交配偏好，这可能是因为体型较大的雌性具有更高的繁殖力。然而，尚不清楚这种偏好是否像我们在其他雄性偏好中看到的那样，基于雄性的性经历表现出行为可塑性。在这里，我们操纵了[果蝇名称]雄性的性经历，并测试这种操纵是否会对雄性对大型雌性的配偶选择强度产生任何影响。我们发现，没有性经验的雄性对大型雌性有强烈的求爱偏好，这种偏好不受先前与不同体型雌性交配或被其拒绝的经历的影响。鉴于雌性体型是昆虫物种中雄性配偶选择最常见的目标之一，我们对[果蝇名称]的实验可能会为这些偏好如何发展和进化提供见解。
