An experimental test for body size‐dependent effects of male harassment and an elevated copulation rate on female lifetime fecundity and offspring performance
Date
2019-08-23
Authors
Iglesias-Carrasco, Maider
Fox, Rebecca
Vega-Trejo, Regina
Jennions, MIchael D
Head, Megan
Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
Many studies investigate the benefits of polyandry, but repeated interactions with
males can lower female reproductive success. Interacting with males might even
decrease offspring performance if it reduces a female's ability to transfer maternal
resources. Male presence can be detrimental for females in two ways: by forcing females
to mate at a higher rate and through costs associated with resisting male mating
attempts. Teasing apart the relative costs of elevated mating rates from those of
greater male harassment is critical to understand the evolution of mating strategies.
Furthermore, it is important to test whether a male's phenotype, notably body size,
has differential effects on female reproductive success versus the performance of
offspring, and whether this is due to male body size affecting the costs of harassment
or the actual mating rate. In the eastern mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki, males vary
greatly in body size and continually attempt to inseminate females. We experimentally
manipulated male presence (i.e., harassment), male body size and whether males
could copulate. Exposure to males had strong detrimental effects on female reproductive
output, growth and immune response, independent of male size or whether
males could copulate. In contrast, there was a little evidence of a cross‐generational
effect of male harassment or mating rate on offspring performance. Our results suggest
that females housed with males pay direct costs due to reduced condition and
offspring production and that these costs are not a consequence of increased mating
rates. Furthermore, exposure to males does not affect offspring reproductive traits.
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Source
Journal of Evolutionary Biology
Type
Journal article
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Open Access