Article
Behavioral Sciences
Clint D. D. Kelly, Darryl T. T. Gwynne
Summary: Males in better body condition are expected to have better endurance and travel farther during mate searching, but our study on the male Cook Strait giant weta found that both body condition and travel distance were negatively related to mating success. This suggests that lighter males might have an advantage in sprints for nearby females. The findings provide rare evidence of how male mating success is influenced by both body condition and mate-searching effort.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Koutaro Ould Maeno, Cyril Piou, Sidi Ould Ely, Sid'Ahmed Ould Mohamed, Mohamed El Hacen Jaavar, Said Ghaout, Mohamed Abdallahi Ould Babah Ebbe
Summary: Male mating harassment can be reduced in dense populations of desert locusts through behavioral adaptations, where non-gravid females and males live separately while males wait for gravid females at lekking sites to mate. In low-density populations, solitarious locusts display balanced sex ratios and females mate regardless of ovarian state. This suggests that group separation based on sex biases behavior to minimize male mating harassment and competition.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Biology
Paulo B. Chaves, Karen B. Strier, Anthony Di Fiore
Summary: Evidence suggests that females, both human and nonhuman primates, avoid breeding with close kin and may choose mates based on MHC diversity. In egalitarian societies like the northern muriquis, female mate choice is less constrained and sires with higher MHC diversity are preferred. However, there is no evidence of mating preference for males who are more distantly related or have more MHC alleles distinct from their own, suggesting that female mate choice may be limited by other factors impacting male fertilization success.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Sarah L. Y. Lau, Gray A. Williams, Antonio Carvajal-Rodriguez, Emilio Rolan-Alvarez
Summary: Size-assortative mating and sexual selection on size are common across species, with mate choice based on size being a widespread process. In studying the size-based mate choice in intertidal snails, it was found that males prefer to mate with slightly larger females, and multiple-choice experiments are valuable in understanding how males choose mates in the wild.
Article
Biology
Jon Richardson, Marlene Zuk
Summary: Same-sex sexual behavior is not an anomaly and should not be treated as such. It is similar to other misdirected behaviors in animals and can be better understood by considering an individual's mating filter. Male Pacific field crickets engage in same-sex behavior and also misdirect courtship towards juveniles, suggesting that same-sex behavior should be considered alongside other misdirected behaviors. By reframing misdirected behaviors as a product of mating filters, we can gain a more nuanced understanding of reproductive behavior and its advantages.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Michael J. Pauers, Jacob A. Grudnowski
Summary: This study examines behavioral reproductive isolation in a pair of rock-dwelling cichlids from Lake Malawi and confirms that females prefer conspecific males, providing further evidence for the role of sexual selection in speciation of cichlid fishes from Lake Malawi.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Michael J. Ryan
Summary: Darwin's theory of sexual selection, proposed one hundred fifty years ago, focuses on female preferences for elaborately ornamented males due to their taste for beauty. Research has since explored fitness advantages, sensory ecology, signal design, neural circuits, and neurochemistry, providing insight into the mechanisms behind mate choice. Recent studies inspired by human research in psychophysics, behavioral economics, and neuroaesthetics have further advanced our understanding of mate choices.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Ray Garza, Jennifer Byrd-Craven
Summary: The current study examined the ovulatory shift hypothesis that suggests women prefer more masculine traits when estradiol is high and progesterone is low (E/P ratio). Using an eye tracking paradigm, the study measured women's visual attention to facial masculinity throughout their menstrual cycle. Although there was no evidence of a relationship between E/P ratio and preferences for facial masculinity, hormones were found to be associated with visual attention to men in general. The findings support sexual strategies theory and highlight the importance of mating context and facial masculinity in mate choice, but did not find evidence of mate choice shifts across the menstrual cycle.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Brian A. Lerch, Maria R. Servedio
Summary: The presence of same-sex sexual behavior across the animal kingdom is often seen as surprising. One possible explanation is indiscriminate mating, where individuals do not try to determine the sex of potential partners before copulation. This strategy is believed to be an ancestral mode of reproduction and can be a beneficial strategy considering the costs of selective mating. It is important to note that sex discrimination requires not only the attempt to differentiate between sexes, but also some detectable difference (a signal or cue). Based on modeling of mating behavior, it is found that under various parameters, including some with minor costs, indiscriminate mating and the absence of sexual signals can be an evolutionary endpoint. Additionally, the absence of both sex discrimination and sexual signals is always evolutionarily stable. These findings suggest that the observable differences between sexes likely arose as a by-product of the evolution of different sexes, allowing for the evolution of sex discrimination.
AMERICAN NATURALIST
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Olivia E. Anastasio, Chelsea S. Sinclair, Alison Pischedda
Summary: Cryptic male mate choice refers to the differential allocation of resources by males to females during or after copulation. In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, males mate longer and allocate more resources to larger females compared to smaller females. However, it is unclear if this increased investment in larger females has any impact on the males' subsequent matings.
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Katarzyna Pisanski, Maydel Fernandez-Alonso, Nadir Diaz-Simon, Anna Oleszkiewicz, Adrian Sardinas, Robert Pellegrino, Nancy Estevez, Emanuel C. Mora, Curtis R. Luckett, David R. Feinberg
Summary: Height preferences in mate selection differ between genders, with men generally preferring taller female partners. Additionally, men exhibit stronger assortative preferences for height in short-term relationships compared to long-term relationships.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Carolin Dittrich, Melanie Tietje, Mark-Oliver Roedel
Summary: In explosive breeding frogs, males do not show preferences for female body size when intrasexual competition is excluded. However, successful pairs tend to have larger females compared to males.
Article
Ecology
Alycia C. R. Lackey, Alyssa C. Murray, Nadia A. Mirza, Thomas H. Q. Powell
Summary: The study found that sexual isolation can reduce gene flow and mating between different populations of Rhagoletis pomonella flies, which play a role in the early speciation process. Additionally, the study found that warmer temperatures can significantly alter sexual isolation and lead to asymmetric mating patterns.
JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Ryan Calsbeek, Francisco Javier Zamora-Camacho, Laurel B. Symes
Summary: A novel application of acoustic camera technology was used to investigate the influence of individual wood frogs' calls on chorus properties and mating opportunities. The results showed that males and females preferred choruses with low variance in dominant frequency, and females preferred choruses with low mean peak frequency. Field studies revealed that more egg masses were laid in ponds where male frogs chorused with low variance in dominant frequency.
Article
Ecology
Sanduni Talagala, Emily Rakosy, Tristan A. F. Long
Summary: This study examines assortative mating by body-size phenotype in fruit flies and finds that although flies do not exhibit assortative courtship behavior, individuals prefer to produce offspring with partners of similar size. These results validate theoretical predictions that sexual selection can enhance the effects of natural selection and consequently the rate of adaptive evolution.