Webbläsaren som du använder stöds inte av denna webbplats. Alla versioner av Internet Explorer stöds inte längre, av oss eller Microsoft (läs mer här: * https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Var god och använd en modern webbläsare för att ta del av denna webbplats, som t.ex. nyaste versioner av Edge, Chrome, Firefox eller Safari osv.

Male mating constraints affect mutual mate choice: prudent male courting and sperm-limited females.

Författare

  • Roger Härdling
  • Thomas Gosden
  • Robin Aguilée

Summary, in English

Costs of sperm production may lead to prudence in male sperm allocation and also to male mate choice. Here, we develop a life history-based mutual mate choice model that takes into account the lost-opportunity costs for males from time out in sperm recovery and lets mate competition be determined by the prevailing mate choice strategies. We assume that high mating rate may potentially lead to sperm depletion in males, and that as a result, female reproduction may be limited by the availability of sperm. Increasing variation in male quality leads, in general, to increased selective mate choice by females, and vice versa. Lower-quality males may, however, gain access to more fecund higher-quality females by lowering their courting rate, thus increasing their sperm reserves. When faced with strong male competition for mates, low-quality males become less choosy, which leads to assortative mating for quality and an increased mating rate across all males. With assortative mating, the frequency of antagonistic interactions (sexual conflict) is reduced, allowing males to lower the time spent replenishing sperm reserves in order to increase mating rate. This in turn leads to lower sperm levels at mating and therefore could lead to negative effects on female fitness via sperm limitation.

Publiceringsår

2008

Språk

Engelska

Sidor

259-271

Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie

American Naturalist

Volym

172

Issue

2

Dokumenttyp

Artikel i tidskrift

Förlag

University of Chicago Press

Ämne

  • Biological Sciences

Nyckelord

  • sexual conflict
  • male-male competition
  • mating costs
  • sperm depletion
  • mutual mate choice

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt

  • ISSN: 0003-0147