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Individual Culturing of Tigriopus Copepods and Quantitative Analysis of Their Mate-guarding Behavior
Published on: September 26, 2018
Understanding promiscuity: when is seeking additional mates better than guarding an already found one?
1Division of Ecology, Evolution and Genetics, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. anna.harts@anu.edu.au.
Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
|October 8, 2013
Summary
Male mating behaviors, like mate guarding, intensify with more males than females. However, factors like inefficient guarding and sperm competition prevent strict male monogamy, favoring promiscuity even with a male-biased adult sex ratio (ASR).
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Behavioral ecology
- Sexual selection
Background:
- Mate guarding intensifies with increasing male bias in the adult sex ratio (ASR).
- Theoretical models suggest a male-biased ASR could lead to male monogamy.
- Promiscuity is observed more frequently than male monogamy, posing a theoretical question.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate why promiscuity is more common than male monogamy despite theoretical predictions.
- To model the influence of the adult sex ratio (ASR) on mating systems.
- To identify factors that prevent a shift to male monogamy under male-biased ASRs.
Main Methods:
- Developed two theoretical models of mating behavior.
- Incorporated varying male time budgets for mate guarding.
- Included factors such as female fertility cues, guarding efficiency, and sperm precedence.
Main Results:
- Guard durations increase with decreasing female availability and more male competitors.
- Inefficient guarding, incomplete sperm precedence, and fertilization windows allow promiscuity.
- Precopulatory guarding feasibility also influences the prevalence of promiscuity.
Conclusions:
- The adult sex ratio (ASR) is crucial but not solely deterministic of mating systems.
- Multiple biological factors explain the persistence of promiscuity over male monogamy.
- Adjusting fertilization windows can shift male guarding strategies between precopulatory and postcopulatory stages.
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