No Detectable Fertility Benefit from a Single Additional Mating in Wild Stalk-Eyed Flies

Background: Multiple mating by female insects is widespread, and the explanation(s) for repeated mating by females has been the subject of much discussion. Females may profit from mating multiply through direct material benefits that increase their own reproductive output, or indirect genetic benefits that increase offspring fitness. One particular direct benefit that has attracted significant attention is that of fertility assurance, as females often need to mate multiply to achieve high fertility. This hypothesis has never been tested in a wild insect population.Methodology/Principal Findings: Female Malaysian stalk-eyed flies (Teleopsis dalmanni) mate repeatedly during their lifetime, and have been shown to be sperm limited under both laboratory and field conditions. Here we ask whether receiving an additional mating alleviates sperm limitation in wild females. In our experiment one group of females received a single additional mating, while a control group received an interrupted, and therefore unsuccessful, mating. Females that received an additional mating did not lay more fertilised eggs in total, nor did they lay proportionately more fertilised eggs. Female fertility declined significantly through time, demonstrating that females were sperm limited. However, receipt of an additional mating did not significantly alter the rate of this decline.Conclusions/Significance: Our data suggest that the fertility consequences of a single additional mating were small. We discuss this effect (or lack thereof), and suggest that it is likely to be attributed to small ejaculate size, a high proportion of failed copulations, and the presence of X-linked meiotic drive in this species

Large Numbers of Matings Give Female Field Crickets a Direct Benefit but not a Genetic Benefit

Female crickets can potentially gain both direct and indirect benefits from mating multiple times with different males. Most studies have only examined the effects of small numbers of matings, although female crickets are capable of mating many times. The goal of this paper is to examine the direct and indirect benefits of mating large numbers of times for female reproductive success. In a previous experiment, female Gryllus vocalis were found to gain diminishing direct benefits from mating large numbers of times. In this study I attempt to determine whether mating large numbers of times yields similar diminishing returns on female indirect benefits. Virgin female Gryllus vocalis crickets were assigned to mate five, ten or 15 times with either the same or different males. Females that mated more times gained direct benefits in terms of laying more eggs and more fertilized eggs. Females that mated with different males rather than mating repeatedly with the same male did not have higher offspring hatching success, a result that is contrary to other published results comparing female reproductive success with repeated versus different partners. These results suggest that females that mate large numbers of times fail to gain additional genetic benefits from doing so

The role of complex cues in social and reproductive plasticity

Phenotypic plasticity can be a key determinant of fitness. The degree to which the expression of plasticity is adaptive relies upon the accuracy with which information about the state of the environment is integrated. This step might be particularly beneficial when environments, e.g. the social and sexual context, change rapidly. Fluctuating temporal dynamics could increase the difficulty of determining the appropriate level of expression of a plastic response. In this review, we suggest that new insights into plastic responses to the social and sexual environment (social and reproductive plasticity) may be gained by examining the role of complex cues (those comprising multiple, distinct sensory components). Such cues can enable individuals to more accurately monitor their environment in order to respond adaptively to it across the whole life course. We briefly review the hypotheses for the evolution of complex cues and then adapt these ideas to the context of social and sexual plasticity. We propose that the ability to perceive complex cues can facilitate plasticity, increase the associated fitness benefits and decrease the risk of costly ‘mismatches’ between phenotype and environment by (i) increasing the robustness of information gained from highly variable environments, (ii) fine-tuning responses by using multiple strands of information and (iii) reducing time lags in adaptive responses. We conclude by outlining areas for future research that will help to determine the interplay between complex cues and plasticity

Temperatures that sterilize males better match global species distributions than lethal temperatures

Attempts to link physiological thermal tolerance to global species distributions have relied on lethal temperature limits, yet many organisms lose fertility at sublethal temperatures. Here we show that, across 43 Drosophila species, global distributions better match male-sterilizing temperatures than lethal temperatures. This suggests that species distributions may be determined by thermal limits to reproduction, not survival, meaning we may be underestimating the impacts of climate change for many organisms

Variation in male mate choice in Drosophila melanogaster

Male mate choice has been reported in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, even though males of this species were previously thought to maximise their fitness by mating with all available females. To understand the evolution of male mate choice it is important to understand variation in male mating preferences. Two studies, using different stock populations and different methods, have reported contrasting patterns of variation in male mate choice in D. melanogaster. Two possible explanations are that there are evolved differences in each stock population or that the methods used to measure choice could have biased the results. We investigated these hypotheses here by repeating the methods used in one study in which variable male mate choice was found, using the stock population from the other study in which choice was not variable. The results showed a significant resource-independent male preference for less fecund, smaller females, which contrasts with previous observations of male mate choice. This indicates that different selection pressures between populations have resulted in evolved differences in the expression of male mate choice. It also reveals phenotypic plasticity in male mate choice in response to cues encountered in each choice environment. The results highlight the importance of variation in male mate choice, and of identifying mechanisms in order to understand the evolution of mate choice under varying ecological conditions

Subsocial Cockroaches Nauphoeta cinerea Mate Indiscriminately with Kin Despite High Costs of Inbreeding

International audienceMany animals have evolved strategies to reduce risks of inbreeding and its deleterious effects on the progeny. In social arthropods, such as the eusocial ants and bees, inbreeding avoidance is typically achieved by the dispersal of breeders from their native colony. However studies in presocial insects suggest that kin discrimination during mate choice may be a more common mechanism in socially simpler species with no reproductive division of labour. Here we examined this possibility in the subsocial cockroach Nauphoeta cinerea, a model species for research in sexual selection, where males establish dominance hierarchies to access females and control breeding territories. When given a binary choice between a sibling male and a non-sibling male that had the opportunity to establish a hierarchy prior to the tests, females mated preferentially with the dominant male, irrespective of kinship or body size. Despite the lack of kin discrimination during mate choice, inbred-mated females incurred significant fitness costs, producing 20% less offspring than outbred-mated females. We discuss how the social mating system of this territorial cockroach may naturally limit the probability of siblings to encounter and reproduce, without the need for evolving active inbreeding avoidance mechanisms, such as kin recognition