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Acceptance threshold theory can explain occurrence of homosexual behaviour
Katharina C Engel1, Lisa Männer1, Manfred Ayasse1
1Institute of Experimental Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
Biology Letters
|January 30, 2015
Summary
Same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB) in animals may be an adaptive strategy. Males adjust mating decisions to avoid errors, especially when distinguishing between sexes is difficult, supporting evolutionary explanations for SSB.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Animal behavior
- Behavioral ecology
Background:
- Same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB) is observed across numerous animal species.
- The evolutionary drivers of SSB remain incompletely understood.
- Reeve's acceptance threshold theory offers a framework for understanding mate recognition strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the evolutionary causes of SSB in burying beetles using acceptance threshold theory.
- To examine how males adjust discrimination thresholds based on perceived costs of mating errors.
Main Methods:
- Experimental manipulation of male burying beetles' search time for females and reproductive potential.
- Assessing the impact of these manipulations on male discrimination decisions and SSB incidence.
Main Results:
- Increased costs of rejecting females led to more permissive discrimination and higher SSB rates.
- Increased costs of accepting males resulted in more restrictive discrimination and lower SSB rates.
- These findings align with predictions from acceptance threshold theory.
Conclusions:
- SSB can arise from adaptive discrimination strategies in species with overlapping sex-recognition cues.
- Males adjust their acceptance thresholds to minimize fitness costs associated with mating errors.
- The study provides an evolutionary explanation for SSB as a consequence of optimizing mate recognition.
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