Article
Ecology
Sade Bates, Lara Meade, Andrew Pomiankowski
Summary: In double mating trials, X-linked meiotic drive males in Teleopsis dalmanni (stalk-eyed fly) have been found to have the same level of fertility as wildtype males in sperm competition against wildtype males. This challenges the assumption that drive males inevitably have reduced fertility. Previous research has also shown that the number of sperm transferred to females during non-competitive single matings does not differ between drive and wildtype males, likely due to the adaptive evolution of enlarged testes in drive males. Future experiments will determine if the competitive ability of drive males is maintained under higher rates of female remating.
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Markus Friedrich
Summary: This study revealed the conservation of most brachyceran opsin homologs in the genome assembly of T. dalmanni, except for the UV wavelength range-sensitive homolog Rh4. These findings highlight the caution that needs to be applied to gene loss conclusions.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL ZOOLOGY PART B-MOLECULAR AND DEVELOPMENTAL EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Aoi Miki, Risa Fukuda, Koji Takeda, Ayano Moriya, Yoshitaka Kamimura, Chow-Yang Lee, Takashi Adachi-Yamada
Summary: This study investigates the relationship between eye span and energy storage in two species of diopsid flies. The results show that the eye stalks of Sphyracephala detrahens contain more fat bodies compared to Cyrtodiopsis dalmanni. Additionally, there is a strong positive correlation between eye span and starvation tolerance for S. detrahens, while a weak correlation is found for C. dalmanni. Starvation also decreases the contest winning rate for S. detrahens pairs with similar eye spans. These findings indicate that the presentation of resource holding potential may be larger than the actual storage ability, and the reliability of nutritional storage signaling varies between species.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Biology
Sasha L. Bradshaw, Lara Meade, Jessica Tarlton-Weatherall, Andrew Pomiankowski
Summary: This study examined the sex ratio X-linked meiotic drive system in stalk-eyed flies and found that the testes of drive males were enlarged at eclosion, contrary to previous predictions, and there was no evidence that this affected the growth of the accessory glands. Furthermore, further experiments are proposed to investigate the effects of copulation and nutritional stress on the size of the accessory glands.
Article
Ecology
Maica Krizna D. Areja-Gavina, Monica C. Torres, Gimelle B. Gamilla, Tomohiko Sakaguchi, Hiromu Ito, Jomar F. Rabajante, Jerrold M. Tubay, Jin Yoshimura, Satoru Morita
Summary: Researchers explored how competition among males affects the evolution of armaments through a game-theoretic sexual selection model. The study supported the exaggerated evolution hypothesis, showing that male-male competition escalates the rate of evolution of armaments.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Sam Ronan Finnegan, Matteo Mondani, Kevin Fowler, Andrew Pomiankowski
Summary: The study examined the 'sex-ratio' meiotic drive system in the Malaysian stalk-eyed fly Teleopsis dalmanni and found reduced eyespan in males and females carrying the SR chromosome under both low and high stress conditions. However, there was no evidence of condition-dependent decrease in eyespan under high stress, suggesting a compensatory resource allocation to different traits in response to drive-mediated destruction of sperm.
JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Allen J. Moore, Joel W. McGlothlin, Jason B. Wolf
Summary: The study develops a quantitative genetic model to investigate male signaling traits mediating aggression in male-male contests. The findings suggest that an honest indicator of aggression can generate selection on itself by altering the social environment, leading to accelerated selection on the trait as it is elaborated, resulting in runaway evolution. The evolving source of selection provided by the social environment is identified as a fundamental unifying feature of runaway sexual selection.
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Marco Antonio Correa Varella, Zuzana Sterbova, Klara Bartova, Maryanne L. Fisher, Jaroslava Varella Valentova
Summary: This study examined the relationship between self-perceived talent/expertise in the arts and sports and intersexual selection and intrasexual competition. The findings showed that in women, there were stronger associations between the arts and intersexual selection, while in men, there were more associations with intrasexual competition. Additionally, each art form had different relative importance in each sex.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Josephine A. Reinhardt, Richard H. Baker, Aleksey Zimin, Chloe Ladias, Kimberly A. Paczolt, John H. Werren, Cheryl Y. Hayashi, Gerald S. Wilkinson
Summary: Research shows that stalk-eyed flies in the genus Teleopsis carry selfish genetic elements that induce sex ratio meiotic drive and impact the fitness of male and female carriers. By assembling and describing the genome of Teleopsis dalmanni, researchers identified patterns of divergence associated with sex ratio. The genome contains a large number of transposable element insertions and active TE families.
GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Xiaolin Chen, Huangfu Ning, Yong Wang, Yu Zeng, Tock H. Chua, Chaodong Zhu
Summary: This study discovered male polymorphism in stalk-eyed fruit flies, presenting four morphotypes in Pe. fukienensis, three in Pe. ichneumoneus and Ps. angustifasciatus. These morphotypes differ in eyestalk length, wing pattern, and the presence of projections or spikes at the ends of the compound eye. Based on new molecular evidence, the study also proposed phylogenetic and phylogeographic implications for the group. Additionally, courtship and mating behaviors between previously recognized different species were observed.
Article
Ecology
Tommaso Sacca, Gerrit Gort, Erica van de Waal, Charlotte K. Hemelrijk
Summary: In a minority of mammalian species, females dominate a subset of males, which may be attributed to the impact of fights initiated by males on hierarchical differentiation. This computational model was confirmed through experiments on vervet monkeys, showing a positive correlation between the proportion of males and the degree of female dominance over males.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Ally Swank, Kadijah Blevins, Abby Bourne, Jessica Ward
Summary: Microplastics are widespread in aquatic environments and have adverse impacts on the physiology and reproductive behavior of aquatic animals. This study shows that short-term dietary exposure to microplastics does not impair male fish's ability to compete for breeding territory and does not significantly alter their aggression behavior.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Catherine Chen, Courtney C. Byrd, Karin S. Pfennig
Summary: The study reveals that males adjust their behavior in response to environmental cues, preferring to aggregate with conspecific males in certain scenarios to enhance mating success with conspecific females.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Lucie Rigaill, Cecile Garcia
Summary: The traditional view of sex roles and sexual selection emphasizes the evolution of male ornaments based on female mate choice and male-male competition. However, in a study on Japanese macaques, researchers found that male monkeys did not show a preference for darker/red females based on their skin coloration, and did not use female skin coloration to guide their mating efforts or discriminate between females. This suggests that female skin coloration may not have been sexually selected in this species, and males mated regardless of such variation across females.
Article
Entomology
Ayumi Kudo
Summary: This study evaluated the submergence tolerances of Sphyracephala detrahens immatures and found that individuals in later larval and pupal stages were more tolerant to submergence. These results may reflect adaptation of S. detrahens to fluctuating water levels.
PHYSIOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
James A. Klarevas-Irby, Damien R. Farine
Summary: Little is known about how animals overcome temporal constraints on movement during dispersal. This study used GPS tracking of vulturine guineafowl and found that dispersers showed the greatest increase in movement at the same times of day when they moved the most prior to dispersal. These findings suggest that individuals face the same ecological constraints during dispersal as they do in daily life and achieve large displacements by maximizing movement when conditions are most favorable.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Simone Ciaralli, Martina Esposito, Stefano Francesconi, Daniela Muzzicato, Marco Gamba, Matteo Dal Zotto, Daniela Campobello
Summary: Male cuckoos may transfer nest location information to females as a nonmaterial nuptial gift through specific postures and behaviors, potentially influencing mating choices of female cuckoos.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Anne E. Aulsebrook, Rowan Jacques-Hamilton, Bart Kempenaers
Summary: Accelerometry and machine learning have been used to quantify mating behaviors of captive male ruffs. Different machine learning methods were compared and evaluated for their classification performance. The study highlights the challenges and potential pitfalls in classifying mating behaviors using accelerometry and provides recommendations and considerations for future research.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Maria G. Smith, Joshua B. LaPergola, Christina Riehl
Summary: This study analyzed individual contributions to parental care in the greater ani bird and found that workload inequality varied between groups of two and three pairs. However, there was no clear evidence of division of labour within the groups, suggesting individual differences in overall work performed.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Noah M. T. Smith, Reuven Dukas
Summary: Winner and loser effects are observed in many animals, and recent experiments suggest that they may also occur in humans. In two experiments involving video games and reading comprehension, participants who won in the first phase performed significantly better in the second phase compared to those who lost. The effect size was larger in the video game experiment, and men and women showed similar magnitudes of winner and loser effects.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Bianca J. L. Marcellino, Peri Yee, Shannon J. Mccauley, Rosalind L. Murray
Summary: This study examines the trade-off between mating effort and thermoregulatory behavior in dragonflies in response to temperature changes, and investigates the effect of wing melanin on these behaviors. The results indicate that as temperature increases, dragonflies reduce their mating effort and increase their thermoregulatory behavior.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Rafael Rios Moura, Paulo Inacio Prado, Joao Vasconcellos-Neto
Summary: This study examined the escape behavior and decision-making of Aglaoctenus castaneus spiders on different substrates. It was found that spiders inhabiting injurious substrates displayed shorter flight initiation distances and lower sensitivity to predators.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Luigi Baciadonna, Cwyn Solvi, Francesca Terranova, Camilla Godi, Cristina Pilenga, Livio Favaro
Summary: In this study, it was found that African penguins could use ventral dot patterns to recognize their lifelong partner and nonpartner colonymates. This challenges the previous assumption of limited visual involvement in penguin communication, highlighting the complex and flexible recognition process in birds.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Nick A. R. Jones, Jade Newton-Youens, Joachim G. Frommen
Summary: Environmental conditions, particularly temperature, have a significant impact on animal behavior. This study focused on aggression in Neolamprologus pulcher fish and found that aggression rates increased with temperature at lower levels, but decreased after reaching a peak. Additionally, the influence of high temperatures on aggression changed over time during the trials. These findings provide a more comprehensive understanding of the short-term effects of temperature on aggression and highlight the importance of considering non-linear changes in thermal performance.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Bruno Herlander Martins, Andrea Soriano-Redondo, Aldina M. A. Franco, Ines Carry
Summary: Human activities have affected the availability of resources for wildlife, particularly through the provision of anthropogenic food subsidies at landfill sites. This study explores the influence of age on landfill attendance and foraging behavior in white storks. Adult storks visit landfills more frequently and show dominance over juveniles in food acquisition. Juveniles have limited access to landfill resources and are forced to use lower quality areas.