Female mate choice tactics in a resource-based mating system: field tests of alternative models

In this study we test theoretical models of female mate choice tactics in natural populations of pine engravers, Ips pini (Say) (Coleoptera: Scolytidae), a species with a resource-based mating system and high search costs. We first develop distinguishing predictions for each of four models of mate choice: random, comparison tactics, and fixed and adjustable thresholds. These predictions relate to commonly collected field data that include the visiting behavior of females and the quality of accepted and rejected mates. Using these types of data, we conclude that pine engravers use an adjustable threshold mate choice tactic because females often accepted the first male encountered, rarely revisited males, visited similar numbers of males in patches of different quality, accepted higher-quality males than those they rejected even on their first encounter with a male in a patch, and had higher acceptance thresholds in high-quality patches than in low-quality patches. This adjustable threshold tactic is consistent with a one-step decision rule and is predicted to occur in species such as pine engravers in which search costs are high and females have information about patch quality before beginning a search in a patch.