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Updated: Jun 25, 2025

Measuring and Altering Mating Drive in Male Drosophila melanogaster
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Measuring and Altering Mating Drive in Male Drosophila melanogaster

Published on: February 15, 2017

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Sexual Selection Increases Male Behavioral Consistency in Drosophila melanogaster

Jack A Brand, Upama Aich, Winston K W Yee

    The American Naturalist
    |May 23, 2024
    PubMed

    Insights

    High sexual selection reduces male behavioral plasticity in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). Males evolved under intense sexual selection showed more consistent locomotor activity, unlike those from low selection populations.

    Area of Science:

    • Evolutionary biology
    • Behavioral ecology
    • Animal behavior

    Background:

    • Sexual selection is hypothesized to influence male behavioral consistency.
    • Experimental evidence directly linking sexual selection to male behavioral consistency has been limited.
    • Drosophila melanogaster exhibits both pre- and postcopulatory sexual selection.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To investigate the impact of experimental evolution under varying sexual selection regimes on male behavioral consistency in Drosophila melanogaster.
    • To determine if sexual selection alters locomotor activity consistency in males and females.
    • To examine sex differences in behavioral consistency under different sexual selection intensities.

    Main Methods:

    • Measuring locomotor activity (a fitness-related trait) in 286 Drosophila melanogaster flies.
    • Utilizing replicated populations evolved under high or low sexual selection for over 320 generations.
    • Analyzing 1,144 measures of within-individual variance in locomotor activity.

    Main Results:

    • Males from high sexual selection populations exhibited greater behavioral consistency (decreased within-individual variance) in locomotor activity compared to males from low sexual selection populations.
    • No significant differences in behavioral consistency were observed between females from high and low sexual selection populations.
    • Females were more behaviorally consistent than males in low sexual selection populations, but this sex difference disappeared under high sexual selection.

    Conclusions:

    • High levels of sexual selection reduce behavioral plasticity in male fruit flies.
    • These findings suggest that sexual selection can shape evolved differences in behavioral consistency.
    • Future research should differentiate between evolved genetic responses and nongenetic parental effects.
    Keywords:
    among-individual variationanimal personalitybehavioral flexibilitybehavioral syndromeintersexual selectionintrasexual selection

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