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1.
Males of C. fonscolombei patrol and perch at water collection sites or at plants of Reseda, both of which are important resources for female brood care. The mating system can be classified as resource defense polygyny modified by the existence of alternative male mating tactics. Occupying temporary territories at watercollection sites constitutes the primary tactic which is more profitable for larger males. The secondary tactic of patrolling at flowers provides a nonaggressive alternative through which smaller males gain at least some mating success. Males at water collection sites occupy considerably smaller ranges but spend a higher proportion of time patrolling than males at flowers. They frequently grapple with other males, an activity that is absent at flowers. Males at water collection sites copulate about 2.5 times more frequently than males at flowers. The copulation frequency of the males at water collection sites is positively correlated with their body size, while copulation frequency is negatively correlated with body size at flowers. Males patrolling at water collection sites and males patrolling at flowers do not differ in body size, indicating that the decision between alternative mating tactics is not made relative to body size but is influenced by other factors.  相似文献   

2.
This study examined whether polyandrous female Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha obtain benefits compared with monandrous females through an increase in hatching success. Both of the alternative reproductive tactics present in male O. tshawytscha (large hooknoses and small, precocious jacks) were used, such that eggs were either fertilized by a single male (from each tactic) or multiple males (using two males from the same or different tactics). The results show that fertilized eggs from the polyandrous treatments had a significantly higher hatching success than those from the monandrous treatments. It is also shown that sperm speed was positively related with offspring hatching success. Finally, there were tactic‐specific effects on the benefits females received. The inclusion of jacks in any cross resulted in offspring with higher hatching success, with the cross that involved a male from each tactic providing offspring with the highest hatching success than any other cross. This study has important implications for the evolution of multiple mating and why it is so prevalent across taxa, while also providing knowledge on the evolution of mating systems, specifically those with alternative reproductive tactics.  相似文献   

3.
Alternative reproductive tactics can be maintained through differentevolutionary avenues. They can be genetically or stochasticallydetermined, in which case they must yield equal fitness, ortheir use can be conditional, in which case the fitness payoffof alternatives may differ. We attempted to assess the reproductivesuccess of alternative reproductive tactics employed by wildmale and female burying beetles in natural associations on carcassesplaced in the field. A beetle's reproductive tactic was definedby its potential involvement in care of larvae, and parentagewas assessed using oligolocus DNA fingerprinting of offspringand potential parents. Both in males and in females, alternativetactics yielded significantly different reproductive benefits:subordinate females (brood parasites) and males (satellite males)had considerably lower reproductive success than dominant oruncontested individuals. Joint breeding was too infrequent forstatistical inferences, generating intermediate offspring numbers.About 15% of offspring were sired by males not present on thecarcass, suggesting that mating away from reproductive resourcescan produce reproductive benefits to males. Our results, inconcert with the observation that beetles using one tactic canbe manipulated into employing the alternative, support the notionthat Nicrophorus vespilloides uses alternatives conditionally,opportunistically employing lower-benefit tactics when moreprofitable tactics are not available, or as additional "on-the-side"tactics to bolster reproductive success.  相似文献   

4.
Males of the non-territorial damselfly Enallagma hageni have two alternative tactics for finding mates: (1) they search the banks of the pond for unmated females (searching tactic), or (2) wait at oviposition sites for females that resurface prematurely from underwater oviposition (waiting tactic). Although the searching tactic yielded more fertilizations than the waiting tactic, for time invested, the waiting tactic became increasingly successful later in the reproductive season due to changes in female oviposition behaviour. The two tactics can be maintained in the population because males can mate by the waiting tactic during the afternoon when few females are available to searchers. Among males visiting the breeding site an equal number of times, males mating by a mixture of tactics were as successful as males mating only by the main tactic. Because marked males were found to use both tactics, these behaviours are interpreted as evidence of behavioural plasticity within individuals, representing one conditional evolutionary strategy.  相似文献   

5.
Although alternative mating tactics are found in males of manyspecies, little is known about tactic-specific adaptations tosperm competition and the mechanism by which fertilization successis obtained. We now report on the sperm investment patternsof males that use alternative mating tactics in bluegill sunfish(Lepomis macrochirus). Bluegill males are characterized by threealternative mating tactics: parentals, sneakers, and satellites.Parentals delay maturation and adopt a courting and guardingtactic, whereas sneakers and satellites mature precociouslyand, respectively, use sneaking and female mimicry to stealfertilizations from parentals. We found differences among thetactics in testes weight, sperm longevity, and ejaculate spermdensity and competitiveness. Parentals had the largest testes,but the smallest relative to their body weight. Satellites hadintermediate-sized testes, and sneakers had the smallest testes,but the largest relative to their body weight. Within each tactic,there was a positive relationship between testes weight andbody weight, but the exact relationship differed among the tacticsand could not be attributed solely to allometry. Parentals hadlonger-lived sperm compared with that of both sneakers and satellites.Ejaculate sperm density was greatest in sneakers, satelliteswere intermediate, and parentals had the lowest. Competitionexperiments involving equal volumes of ejaculate showed thatfertilization success increased linearly with sperm number,consistent with a rafflelike process. However, independent ofsperm number, parental sperm were superior at fertilizing eggs.We interpret these sperm investment patterns in relation todifferences in sperm competition risk, number of mating opportunities,and alternative investment options.  相似文献   

6.
Post‐copulatory sexual selection processes, including sperm competition and cryptic female choice (CFC), can operate based on major histocompatibility (MH) genes. We investigated sperm competition between male alternative reproductive tactics [jack (sneaker) and hooknose (guard)] of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Using a full factorial design, we examined in vitro competitive fertilization success of paired jack and hooknose males at three time points after sperm activation (0, 15 and 60 s) to test for male competition, CFC and time effects on male fertilization success. We also examined egg‐mediated CFC at two MH genes by examining both the relationship between competitive fertilization success and MH divergence as well as inheritance patterns of MH alleles in resulting offspring. We found that jacks sired more offspring than hooknose males at 0 s post‐activation; however, jack fertilization success declined over time post‐activation, suggesting a trade‐off between sperm speed and longevity. Enhanced fertilization success of jacks (presumably via higher sperm quality) may serve to increase sneaker tactic competitiveness relative to dominant hooknose males. We also found evidence of egg‐mediated CFC (i.e. female × male interaction) influencing competitive fertilization success; however, CFC was not acting on the MH genes as we found no relationship between fertilization success and MH II β1 or MH I α1 divergence and we found no deviations from Mendelian inheritance of MH alleles in the offspring. Our study provides insight into evolutionary mechanisms influencing variation in male mating success within alternative reproductive tactics, thus underscoring different strategies that males can adopt to attain success.  相似文献   

7.
Male common shrews (Sorex araneus) adopt two discrete matingtactics. The most successful males, in terms of number of offspringfathered, are those that establish large overlapping home rangesin areas of high female density early in the breeding season.An alternative, less successful mating tactic is to travel longdistances in search of mating opportunities. This study is aninvestigation of correlates of reproductive success for malesadopting these different mating tactics. Reproductive successunder natural conditions was assessed using DNA fingerprinting,and survival of offspring was monitored in the field. The numberof offspring fathered by males with overlapping home rangeswas positively correlated with the number of female ranges overlappedduring the breeding season and with testes mass. The numberof offspring fathered by males that made long-distance movementswas positively correlated with their epididymal sperm counts.It is argued that competitively superior (overlapping) malesachieve high reproductive success by competing to maximize thenumber of females inseminated, whereas those adopting an alternativemating tactic instead compete largely via sperm competition,aiming to maximize insemination success with any particularfemale. There was no significant difference in the fluctuatingasymmetry (FA) of males adopting different mating tactics (FAwas measured as the difference in length of the paired lateralscent glands). Fluctuating asymmetry was not related to thenumber of offspring fathered by males adopting either matingtactic, but was significantly correlated with the proportionof male offspring fathered that survived to sexual maturity.Although apparently not correlated with mating success in thisspecies, FA may reflect some aspect of genetic quality thataffects offspring survival. [Behav Ecol 7: 334–340 (1996)]  相似文献   

8.
Among polygynous species, males often compete for the possession of mating sites to increase their reproductive success. Weaker individuals frequently adopt alternative non‐territorial mate‐locating tactics, but the adoption of alternative territorial tactics may also occur. Although alternative tactics with territory defence are less common in arthropods, factors that drive its adoption may provide information to understand the organization of different territorial mating systems in the group. Here we investigate the adoption of resource‐based territoriality as an alternative to a non‐resource‐based one by males of the butterfly Paryphthimoides phronius. Male P. phronius commonly defend sunny clearings lacking feeding resources in the forest edge (non‐resource‐based territoriality). However, after experimentally offering fermenting fruit in previously undefended sites, we showed that males also adopt a resource defence tactic. Males in territories with fermenting fruits apparently feed on this resource when they are not defending the territory. However, males in sites without resources did not migrate to territories with resources when given the opportunity. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental investigation to show a non‐resource‐ and an alternative resource‐based mate‐locating tactic in a butterfly. We suggest that this behavioural flexibility may represent an important step to understand the ecological factors responsible for the organization and evolution of different territorial mating systems in insects.  相似文献   

9.
Alternative male mate-finding tactics in burying beetles   总被引:8,自引:3,他引:5  
Male burying beetles, Nicrophorus vespilloides Herbst (Coleoptera:Silphidae), use two alternative mate-finding tactics: malescan (1) search for carcasses that serve as oviposition sitesor (2) attract mates via pheromone emission. In the laboratory,all males tested used both tactics, but there were significantdifferences among males in the time they spent employing eithertactic. These differences appear to be partially geneticallybased. Time of day also affected the tactic used. A comparisonof the benefits of the two tactics, based on field and laboratoryexperiments, suggests that the search tactic results in higherreproductive success than the attraction tactic. However, pheromoneemission may be favored toward the end of the activity phase,when female activity is high but carcass availability may belowest. Females readily mate with pheromone-emitting males eventhough this tactic is less profitable than mating with a malethat has already found a carcass. However, it is likely thatfemales can distinguish between males with and without a carcassonly after physical contact. Also, fresh sperm permits femalesto rear offspring if they find a carcass without a conspecificmale.  相似文献   

10.
《Animal behaviour》1988,36(2):416-432
Male natterjack toads, Bufo calamita, sometimes called to attract females and sometimes behaved as silent satellites, attempting to intercept females attracted by callers. Small males with low intensity calls most frequently adopted the satellite tactic and preferred to parasitize the loudest callers. Because body size and call intensity were highly correlated with male mating success, small males with weak calls were at a reproductive disadvantage, and probably achieved greater success by exploiting the displays of larger, louder males than by calling themselves. The behaviour adopted by individual males in a given situation was predicted by a game theory model which assumed that males used an evolutionarily stable decision rule when choosing between alternative mating tactics. However, the model provided close agreement with observed behaviour only when it assumed that males have imperfect information about the behaviour of competitors. It is concluded that male toads adopt a conditional strategy which depends on their attractiveness to females. By switching between mating tactics appropriately, males maximized expected mating success within the constraint of the information available to them. The decision rule of the model qualitatively corresponds to a proximate mechanism that males appeared to use when switching between tactics. The model offers insights into the behaviour of other species in which males display in groups to attract females.  相似文献   

11.
Alternative Mating Tactics and Evolutionarily Stable Strategies   总被引:6,自引:0,他引:6  
Difficulties with applying Evolutionarily. Stable Strategy (ESS)methodology and terminology to alternative mating behaviors(in which some males in local populations adopt strikingly different,often non-competitive, behavioral patterns) are reviewed. Definitionsfor "tactic" (behavioral phenotype) and "strategy" (evolvedset of rules for expressing tactics) are given. Inconsistentand incorrect applications of "mixed," "pure," and "conditional"ESSs are discussed. Cases of condition-dependent alternative mating tactics arereviewed. Because most alternative behaviors are condition dependent,neither their population-wide nor individual fitness contributionsare expected to equal the fitness contributions of "primary"tactics. Individuals should, however, switch tactics at "equalfitness points." A particular conditional tactic will persistwhen its maintenance cost (genetic or physiological) is lessthan its fitness contribution. In only exceptional cases arethe fitness contributions of tactics expected to be equal: 1)genetic polymorphisms, 2) stochastic "mixed" ESSs, 3) frequency-dependentchoice and, 4) arbitrary assessment. Although alternative tacticsmay occur in cases of genetic polymorphism or genetic equipotence,most mating tactics probably occur when continuous heritablevariation in underlying conditional strategy exists. Selectionfor genetically influenced "roles" (genetic background) mayalso uncover apparent heritability.  相似文献   

12.
According to life-history theory age-dependent investments into reproduction are thought to co-vary with survival and growth of animals. In polygynous species, in which size is an important determinant of reproductive success, male reproduction via alternative mating tactics at young age are consequently expected to be the less frequent in species with higher survival. We tested this hypothesis in male Alpine ibex (Capra ibex), a highly sexually dimorphic mountain ungulate whose males have been reported to exhibit extremely high adult survival rates. Using data from two offspring cohorts in a population in the Swiss Alps, the effects of age, dominance and mating tactic on the likelihood of paternity were inferred within a Bayesian framework. In accordance with our hypothesis, reproductive success in male Alpine ibex was heavily biased towards older, dominant males that monopolized access to receptive females by adopting the ‘tending’ tactic, while success among young, subordinate males via the sneaking tactic ‘coursing’ was in general low and rare. In addition, we detected a high reproductive skew in male Alpine ibex, suggesting a large opportunity for selection. Compared with other ungulates with higher mortality rates, reproduction among young male Alpine ibex was much lower and more sporadic. Consistent with that, further examinations on the species level indicated that in polygynous ungulates the significance of early reproduction appears to decrease with increasing survival. Overall, this study supports the theory that survival prospects of males modulate the investments into reproduction via alternative mating tactics early in life. In the case of male Alpine ibex, the results indicate that their life-history strategy targets for long life, slow and prolonged growth and late reproduction.  相似文献   

13.
1. In many species, males can use different behavioural tactics to achieve fertilization, so-called alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs). Few field studies have measured fitness consequences of ARTs under varying environmental conditions. 2. Here, we describe fitness consequences of three phenotypically plastic ARTs in the African striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio) and show that relative fitness of ARTs differs between years. Each year represents a different generation. 3. For the generation living under high population density, tactics differed in relative fitness in accordance with the theory of conditional strategies, with highly successful territorial breeding males having 10 times higher success than solitary roaming males and 102 times higher success than adult natally philopatric males. 4. For the generation living under intermediate population density, the territorial breeding and roaming tactics yielded similar fitness, which would be in agreement with the theory of mixed strategies. No philopatric males occurred. 5. For the generation living under low population density, roaming was the only tactic used and some roamers had very high fitness. 6. The main prediction of status-dependent selection for conditional strategies is a correlation between fitness and status, often measured as body mass, but we did not find this correlation within tactics when more than one tactic was expressed in the population. 7. Female distribution seems to have an effect on which reproductive tactics male chose: female defence polygyny when females are clumped (interference competition), but a searching tactic when females are dispersed (scramble competition). In contrast to predictions arising from theory on scramble competition, male body mass was important in determining fitness only in the year when females were dispersed, but not in other years. 8. Our results indicate that the differentiation between conditional and mixed strategies is not an absolute one. In many other species, environmental conditions might fluctuate temporally and spatially so that the normally suboptimal tactic yields similar fitness to the (usually) dominant tactic or that only a single tactic prevails. 9. We suggest the term single strategy, independent of current fitness consequences, for systems where tactics are not genetically determined, in contrast to genetically determined alternative strategies.  相似文献   

14.
Intense competition between males for reproduction has led to the evolution of alternative mating tactics (AMTs). Feral goat males usually use a tactic called tending, in which they defend oestrous females from other males. Males may also use a second mating tactic called coursing, in which they gain access to oestrous females by disturbing a tending pair. Herein, we examine estimated mating success (EMS) and risks of using these tactics. Tending was only used by mature (≥4 years old), higher-ranking males and accounted for 75% of EMS. Coursing was used by males of all ages and dominance ranks, and accounted for 25% of EMS. Using coursing, male kids achieved 8% of EMS. Mature males achieved 92% of EMS. Both age and dominance rank were related to EMS, but age was not important after its relationship with dominance was controlled. Tending bouts were, on average, ca. 30 min long, while coursing bouts only averaged ca. 2 min. Males were more likely to suffer a butt while coursing than while tending, and formerly tending males were responsible for most butts. Kids that coursed had the highest risk of being butted. In most AMTs, there are reductions in the risks in relation to low fitness benefits. However, we found that the risks of butts during coursing were high, while our evidence suggests that the EMS was probably low. Nevertheless, the existence of an effective AMT in male feral goats may have an important influence on the intensity of sexual selection and the effective population size.  相似文献   

15.
Alternative reproductive tactics are predicted to be adopted by less competitive males when competition for fertilization is intense. Yet, in some species, competitively superior males use an alternative tactic alongside the conventional tactic. This can jeopardize their success through the conventional tactic, but surprisingly little attention has been paid to this cost. We investigated 1) the degree to which competitive males sneak fertilize eggs in the polygamous threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, and 2) if males balance the cost of sneaking against its benefit. We found competitive males that succeeded in establishing a territory and in attracting spawning females to perform most sneak fertilizations. However, when we reduced the benefit of sneak attempts, by reducing visibility and the success rate of sneak attempts, males sneaked less. When we increased the cost of sneak attempts, by increasing the perceived value of current offspring (by mating males to preferred females rather than unpreferred females or no females), the interest of males in sneak opportunities decreased. Intriguingly, larger males, who presumably had a higher probability of future reproduction, were more willing to risk their current offspring for sneak opportunities. These findings suggest that competitive males that are attractive to females carefully balance costs against benefits in their sneaking decisions. More broadly, our results imply that changes in the environment can influence the cost-benefit ratio of sneaking and alter the distribution of fertilizations in a population. We end with discussing the implications that alterations in sneaking behavior could have for the operation of sexual selection in changing environments.  相似文献   

16.
We observed the reproductive behavior of the oval squid Sepioteuthis lessoniana in captivity. The male used three different mating behaviors: male-parallel (MP), male-upturned (MU) and sneaking. Male competition over females frequently occurred before and during the female egg-laying period, and the outcome of most fights depended on male body size. Larger males guarded their partners from other males and performed MP mating during the egg-laying period of the paired females. In contrast, there was no pairing and mate guarding in MU mating and sneaking, which were adopted by smaller subordinate males as alternative tactics outside female egg-laying period and during the period, respectively. MP matings were 95% successful, but more than half of MU matings were unsuccessful. Higher mating success in MP mating was achieved through pairing, whereas males in MU mating were less successful because mating attempts without pair formation were often foiled by escape of the female. Sneaking was successful in all cases but occurred less frequently. Spermatophores were attached at the opening of the oviduct in MP mating, whereas they were attached around the female buccal membrane in MU mating and sneaking. Considering the route of egg transportation, higher fertilization success can be expected in MP mating because of the advantageous location of the attached spermatophores. Our results suggest that MP mating is used by larger, paired males during the female egg-laying period, and that MU mating and sneaking are alternative tactics adopted by smaller, subordinate males. These alternative mating behaviors would be conditional strategy dependent on relative body size, because some individual males displayed both MP and MU mating behaviors.  相似文献   

17.
Mating in Dolly Vardens (Salvelinus malma) was studied in relation to individuals' dominance ranks in a landlocked population in south-central Alaska. Two types of tactics were adopted by males: pairing directly with a spawning female and streaking to a spawning pair. Average success in sperm release was 97% in pairing but only 47% in streaking, and depended on the distance to the female. The pairing tactic was mostly monopolized by males of primary and secondary dominance rank. These dominant males were the largest (≥210 mm in fork length) and the oldest (≥6 years) individuals. Their mating success per season was much higher than that of the smaller and younger males.  相似文献   

18.
Alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) evolve when there is strong intra-sexual competition between conspecifics for access to mates. Typically, larger “bourgeois” males reproduce by securing the access to reproductive resources while smaller “parasitic” males reproduce by stealing fertilizations from larger males. A number of factors can influence the reproductive success of each tactic, including intrinsic (e.g. size) and extrinsic (e.g. tactic relative frequency) variables. An example where plastic ARTs occur is the peacock blenny Salaria pavo, with large males reproducing by defending nests and attracting females (bourgeois tactic) and small males reproducing by achieving sneaked fertilizations (parasitic tactic). In this study, we conducted field observations on individually tagged animals to determine their social network and collected eggs from 11 nests to determine the fertilization success of each male tactic. Paternity estimates for 550 offspring indicated an average fertilization success for nest-holder males of 95%. Nest-holder male morphological traits and social network parameters were tested as predictors of fertilization success, but only the number of sneakers present in the nest-holder’s social networks was found to be a predictor of paternity loss. Although male morphological traits had been previously found to be strongly correlated with reproductive success of nest-holder males, as measured by the number of eggs collected in the male’s nest, no correlation was found between any of the measured morphological traits and fertilization success for these males. The results suggest a stronger influence of the social environment than of morphological variables in the proportion of lost fertilizations by nest-holder males of this species.  相似文献   

19.
《Animal behaviour》1988,36(4):1136-1144
The sex ratio of Cyprinodon pecosensis was manipulated by varying the number of females but not of males. This resulted in some subordinate males changing their breeding tactics from satellites to territorials. The spawning success of breeding males was directly related, and the intensity of male-male competition was inversely related, to the number of available females. Time-budget data indicated a tradeoff between courtship and agonistic behaviour. In the male-biased treatment, males engaged in a greater number of agonistic interactions and fewer courtship bouts; conversely, in the female-biased treatment courtship behaviour was more frequent than aggression. A greater proportion of males adopted the satellite breeding tactic in the male-biased and even-sex-ratio treatments. Smaller, competitively inferior males were most sensitive to changes in the sex ratio. In the female-biased treatment, with an increase in mating opportunities and a decrease in the level of male-male competition for females, average mating success increased, more males were able to defend territories, and some satellite individuals were able to adopt the territorial breeding tactic. Temporal or spatial changes in the operational sex ratio of a population may have profound effects on the dynamics of the breeding system by affecting (1) the proportion of males adopting primary and secondary breeding tactics, (2) variance in reproductive success, and (3) intensity of sexual selection.  相似文献   

20.
The expression of alternative reproductive tactics can be plastic and occur simultaneously depending on cues that vary spatially or temporally. For example, variation in resources and sexual selection intensity is expected to influence the pay‐off of each tactic and shape the decision of which tactic to employ. Males of the nuptial gift‐giving spider Pisaura mirabilis can adopt three tactics: offering a genuine prey gift, a ‘worthless’ non‐nutritious gift or no gift. We hypothesized that resources and/or male body condition, and mating opportunity and sexual selection intensity, vary over the course of the mating season to shape the co‐existence of alternative traits. We measured these variables in the field over two seasons, to investigate the predictions that as the mating season progresses, (i) males become more likely to employ a gift‐giving tactic, and (ii) the likelihood of switching from worthless to genuine gifts increases. Prey availability increased over the season and co‐varied with the propensity of males to employ the gift‐giving tactic, but we found no support for condition‐dependent gift giving. Males responded to an increase in female availability by increasing their mating effort (gift production). Furthermore, the frequency of genuine gift use increased with sexual selection intensity, consistent with the assumption that sperm competition intensity increases with time. Our results suggest that the frequency of alternative tactics is shaped by seasonal changes in ecological factors and sexual selection. This leads to relaxed selection for the gift‐giving tactic early in the season when females are less choosy and resources more scarce, and increased selection for genuine gifts later in the season driven by mating opportunity and risk of sperm competition.  相似文献   

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