Take-over and infanticide in South Indian Hanuman langurs (Presbytis entellus)

A take-over and infanticide were observed in a South Indian population of Hanuman langurs (Presbytis entellus). A one-male, bisexual troop of langurs (Troop B1) was attacked by a band of two adult males and one subadult male. During the take-over, the resident male and one elderly female were driven from the troop. The youngest infant, about two months old, was fatally wounded by an attack from the dominant incoming male (S1). However, other young infants in Troop B1 were left unharmed. All three incoming males remained in Troop B1 but the troop appeared to remain functionally one-male, as S1 did not allow the other adult male to copulate. There was no sign that S1 attempted to eject the other two males from troop B1. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Female infanticide and human sex ratio evolution.

The possible effect on the evolution of the human sex ratio of a preference for male children is examined in a genetic model. It is shown that the killing of infant daughters can lead to either a female- or a male-biased sex ratio, the outcome depending on the decision rule used to determine the fate of a child. This reconciles long-standing contradictory results.     

Some aspects of infanticide and intermale competition among langurs,Presbytis entellus,at Dharwar,India

Conspecific infanticides by male langurs depresses population growth in their densely populated habitats. An infanticidal model developed from demographic parameters obtained in the Dharwar study area predicts an almost stable population. On the other hand, a non-infanticidal model predicts a population growth by 2.6% per year. The effect of frequent troop usurpation and infanticide on the control of population growth must be strong if the natality rate is high. For subadult and juvenile surplus males, it must be difficult to survive and to mature in the all-male party in its poor habitat. However, from calculations for living adult males and the number of troops at Dharwar, most adult males are thought to be able to obtain a troop within five years of first challenge of usurpation. Dominant males do not always take over a troop containing more females than do subordinate males. These simple assessments require further intensive field studies to determine the precise differences between infanticidal and non-infanticidal populations and whether or not dominant males make a greater genetic contribution than subordinate males to subsequent generations.     

The variable social organization of hanuman langurs(Presbytis entellus), infanticide,and the monopolization of females

Data from 24 wild populations of hanuman langurs (Presbytis entellus)in south Asia are used to test hypotheses seeking to explain variation in troop structure and the incidence of infanticide. The occurrence of infanticide is associated with a one-male troop structure and not with a high density. The density, predation, and economic-advantage hypotheses, as explanations for the occurrence of one-male and multimale troops, are not supported by the review. However, the monopolization hypothesis is not contradicted; the number of adult males per troop is significantly correlated with troop size and with the number of adult females per troop. Therefore it is suggested that a one-male troop structure will arise if a male is able to monopolize a group of females, a multimale troop if he cannot. One-male troops may predispose to infanticide because of high variance in male mating success and high intermale competition between groups rather than within troops. If female dispersion determines troop structure, it is speculated that females could manipulate males to form a multimale society if the advantages in terms of infant survival and intertroop conflict exceeded the costs in terms of not producing infanticidal “sexy sons.”     

Female finery is not for males

There has recently been an increase in interest in the notion that female ornamentation is selected through male choice, rather than being an artefact of selection on male ornamentation. There are, however, key differences between the sexes in the type of selection pressures that are likely to generate ornamentation and important differences in investment tradeoffs. Here, I discuss that female ornamentation might be selected more often through female competition over resources than through competition over mates, as exemplified in a recent study by Heinsohn and colleagues.     

Female stem cells are superior to males in preserving myocardial function following endotoxemia

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) may offer therapeutic benefit in the setting of sepsis and endotoxemia. Previous studies suggest that MSCs from female donors may possess better protective capabilities than their male counterparts. The present study examined whether female MSCs may offer a greater protective advantage in the setting of endotoxemic cardiac dysfunction compared with male MSCs. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were injected intraperitoneally with LPS and then treated with intraperitoneal injections of either saline, female MSCs, or male MSCs. Hearts and serum were then collected for analysis of myocardial function, myocardial protein, and myocardial and serum cytokines. Compared with male MSC or vehicle-treated animals, female MSC treatment resulted in greater preservation of myocardial function (P < 0.001). Serum and myocardial levels of all measured cytokines were comparable between rats given MSCs from male or female donors but substantially improved over rats given vehicle (P < 0.05). Reduced myocardial inflammation correlated with reduced levels of phosphorylated p38 MAPK expression in the myocardium of animals injected with MSCs of either sex (P < 0.05). The Bcl-xL/Bax ratio was increased to a greater extent following treatment with female MSCs vs. male MSCs (P < 0.05). Intraperitoneal administration of MSCs is effective in limiting myocardial inflammation and dysfunction in the rat endotoxemia model. Compared with treatment with their male counterparts, MSC treatment from female donors is associated with greater cardiac protection against acute endotoxemic injury.     

Female discrimination against sworded males in a poeciliid fish

Female poeciliid fish of the sister genera Xiphophorus and Priapella share a mating preference favouring a sword, despite phylogenetic evidence that the sword arose in Xiphophorus. This conclusion is based on the presence of a preference favouring a sword in three unsworded species and one sworded species. Here I investigate the response to a sword in the poeciliid fish Heterandria bimaculata by testing females with conspecific males that differ in the presence or absence of a sword. Female H. bimaculata were found to prefer unsworded males, thus sworded males were discriminated against. I also tested the strength of female response; females did not show a differential response to males based on sword length. The preference for unsworded males could indicate that when new male traits arise, biases might oppose trait evolution, even in cases in which similar male traits in related taxa are favoured. Explanations for the female preference for unsworded males are discussed.     

Strategies and counterstrategies to infanticide in mammals

I analyse and summarize the empirical evidence in mammals supporting alternative benefits that individuals may accrue when committing nonparental infanticide. Nonparental infanticide may provide the perpetrator with nutritional benefits, increased access to limited resources, increased reproductive opportunities, or it may prevent misdirecting parental care to unrelated offspring. The possibility that infanticide is either a neutral or maladaptive behaviour also is considered. I devote the second half of this article to reviewing potential mechanisms that individuals may use to prevent infanticide. These counterstrategies include the early termination of pregnancy, direct aggression by the mother against intruders, the formation of coalitions for group defence, the avoidance of infanticidal conspecifics, female promiscuity, and territoriality. I evaluate the support for each benefit and counterstrategy across different groups of mammals and make suggestions for future research.     

Variable resistance versus constant resistance strength training in adult males

Changes in strength, body composition and anthropometric measures for groups training with constant resistance and variable resistance training procedures was compared. Thirty-six male volunteers were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Constant Resistance (CR), Variable Resistance (VR) and Control (C). Strength training was conducted 3 days per week, 45 min per day, for 10 weeks. The results demonstrated that both the CR and the VR groups increased muscular strength. The CR group demonstrated significant increases in strength over the VR group when strength was assessed by CR procedures. Conversely, the VR group demonstrated significant increases in strength over the CR group when strength was assessed by VR procedures. Neither group exhibited superiority over the other relative to changes in body composition and anthropometric measures. The significance of these results is discussed.     

Female collared flycatchers learn to prefer males with an artificial novel ornament

We experimentally investigated whether learning from previousexperiences can lead to the establishment of a new mate preferencein a wild population of birds. During year one (2001), 63 femalecollared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis) bred together withmales that we had provided with a novel trait, a red stripeon their white forehead patch (a sexually selected trait). Somecolor patterns of birds are largely determined by a few genes,and this experiment was designed to mimic the occurrence ofmutations in such genes. In the subsequent year (2002), we foundthat females with previous experience with red-striped maleswere more likely to pair with red-striped males (76%) than withcontrol males. By contrast, naïve females (i.e., with noprevious experience with red-striped males) were not more likelyto pair with red-striped males (44%) than with control males.Females paired with red-striped males produced more offspringthan females paired with control males, suggesting that maleswith the novel trait had become favored by selection. Thus,female collared flycatchers appear to quickly learn to associatea novel trait with a suitable mate that, in turn, leads to assortativemating between local mates (i.e., males with the new trait andfemales with previous experience of the new trait). Our resultsprovide support for the notion that learning may play an importantrole when the co-evolution of preferences and preferred traitstakes different routes in different populations of the samebird species.     

Female butterflies prefer males bearing bright iridescent ornamentation

Butterflies are among nature's most colorful animals, and provide a living showcase for how extremely bright, chromatic and iridescent coloration can be generated by complex optical mechanisms. The gross characteristics of male butterfly colour patterns are understood to function for species and/or sex recognition, but it is not known whether female mate choice promotes visual exaggeration of this coloration. Here I show that females of the sexually dichromatic species Hypolimnas bolina prefer conspecific males that possess bright iridescent blue/ultraviolet dorsal ornamentation. In separate field and enclosure experiments, using both dramatic and graded wing colour manipulations, I demonstrate that a moderate qualitative reduction in signal brightness and chromaticity has the same consequences as removing the signal entirely. These findings validate a long-held hypothesis, and argue for the importance of intra- versus interspecific selection as the driving force behind the exaggeration of bright, iridescent butterfly colour patterns.     

Female cleaner fish cooperate more with unfamiliar males

Joint group membership is of major importance for cooperation in humans, and close ties or familiarity with a partner are also thought to promote cooperation in other animals. Here, we present the opposite pattern: female cleaner fish, Labroides dimidiatus, behave more cooperatively (by feeding more against their preference) when paired with an unfamiliar male rather than with their social partner. We propose that cooperation based on asymmetric punishment causes this reversed pattern. Males are larger than and dominant to female partners and are more aggressive to unfamiliar than to familiar female partners. In response, females behave more cooperatively with unfamiliar male partners. Our data suggest that in asymmetric interactions, weaker players might behave more cooperatively with out-group members than with in-group members to avoid harsher punishment.     

Female reproductive strategies in orangutans,evidence for female choice and counterstrategies to infanticide in a species with frequent sexual coercion

Intersexual conflicts over mating can engender antagonistic coevolution of strategies, such as coercion by males and selective resistance by females. Orangutans are exceptional among mammals for their high levels of forced copulation. This has typically been viewed as an alternative mating tactic used by the competitively disadvantaged unflanged male morph, with little understanding of how female strategies may have shaped and responded to this behaviour. Here, we show that male morph is not by itself a good predictor of mating dynamics in wild Bornean orangutans but that female conception risk mediated the occurrence and quality of male–female interactions. Near ovulation, females mated cooperatively only with prime flanged males who they encountered at higher rates. When conception risk was low, willingness to associate and mate with non-prime males increased. Our results support the hypothesis that, together with concealed ovulation, facultative association is a mechanism of female choice in a species in which females can rarely avoid coercive mating attempts. Female resistance, which reduced copulation time, may provide an additional mechanism for mate selection. However, coercive factors were also important as prime males were frequently aggressive to females and females used mating strategies consistent with infanticide avoidance.     

Female choice of large males in the treefrog Hyla ebraccata

The mating behaviour and male mating success of Hyla ebraccata were examined over three study periods. Mated males were larger than unmated males on a significant number of nights and for one of the three study periods. In field observations of pair formation, female behaviour was consistent with choice of large males: females moved freely through the chorus, remaining within 10 cm of males larger than the nightly mean, before the male initiated amplexus. In 27% (n = 3) of these observations, males chased and fought over the female. However, the females removed two of these three males from amplexus, suggesting that females can also exercise choice after amplexus. There was a significant negative correlation between male size and dominant frequency of the primary note, indicating that the male's advertisement call contained size-related information. Comparisons of the size of mated and unmated males suggest that two factors may have affected the degree to which female choice influenced male mating success. First, the distance between calling males may have limited the opportunity for females to express a mating preference. Secondly, an increase in mean and a decrease in the variance of male size in one of the three study periods also may have limited the ability of females to express a preference for large males.     

Testosterone increases perceived dominance but not attractiveness in human males

Recent evidence suggests that certain features on the human face indicate hormonal levels during growth, and that women judge the attractiveness of potential partners based on the appearance of these features. One entrenched notion is male facial features that are affected by testosterone are used as direct cues in mate preference. Testosterone may be particularly revealing as it is purported to be an honest indicator of male fitness. Increased testosterone may impose an immunocompetence handicap on the bearer and only the best males can carry this handicap. To date, tests of this theory have been indirect, and have relied on digital manipulations that represent unrealistic continuums of masculine and feminine faces. We provide a much more direct test by manipulating digitally male faces to mimic known shape variation, caused by varying levels of testosterone through puberty. We produced a continuum of faces that ranged from low to high levels of testosterone in male faces and asked women to choose the points on the continuum that appeared most attractive and most physically dominant. Our data indicate that high testosterone faces reveal dominance. However, there is no evidence of directional selection for increased (or decreased) testosterone in terms of attractiveness to the opposite sex. We discuss the relevance and applicability of evolutionary interpretations of our data and, contrary to predictions, provide evidence of stabilizing selection acting on testosterone through mate preferences.     

CD97 neutralisation increases resistance to collagen-induced arthritis in mice

Synovial tissue of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients is characterised by an influx and retention of CD97-positive inflammatory cells. The ligands of CD97, CD55, chondroitin sulfate B, and α5β1 (very late antigen [VLA]-5) are expressed abundantly in the synovial tissue predominantly on fibroblast-like synoviocytes, endothelium, and extracellular matrix. Based upon this expression pattern, we hypothesise CD97 expression to result in accumulation of inflammatory cells in the synovial tissue of RA patients. To determine the therapeutic effect of blocking CD97 in an animal model of RA, collagen-induced arthritis was induced in a total of 124 DBA/J1 mice. Treatment was started on day 21 (early disease) or on day 35 (longstanding disease) with the blocking hamster anti-mouse CD97 monoclonal antibody (mAb) 1B2, control hamster immunoglobulin, or NaCl, applied intraperitoneally three times a week. The paws were evaluated for clinical signs of arthritis and, in addition, examined by radiological and histological analysis. Mice receiving 0.5 mg CD97 mAb starting from day 21 had significantly less arthritis activity and hind paw swelling. Furthermore, joint damage and inflammation were reduced and granulocyte infiltration was decreased. When treatment was started on day 35, CD97 mAb treatment had similar effects, albeit less pronounced. The results support the notion that CD97 contributes to synovial inflammation and joint destruction in arthritis.