Effect of male mating history and age on remating by female European corn borer.

Panagiotis G Milonas,David A Andow,George K Partsinevelos,Claude Wicker-Thomas

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0175512

Panagiotis G Milonas, David A Andow + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175512

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Abstract

If mating with an inferior male has high fitness costs, females may try to avoid mating with these males. Alternatively, females may accept an inferior male to ensure they have obtained at least one mate, and/or to avoid the costs of resisting these males. We hypothesized that females compensate for mating with an inferior male by remating. We tested this hypothesis by measuring remating propensity in females that had mated with an old, multiply-mated male, a 9-day-old virgin male, or a young, virgin male. Females were more likely to remate when they had mated with multiply-mated males than when they had mated with a 9-day-old or young virgin male. We discuss the observed mating behavior by females in terms of sexual selection for multiple mating.

Highlights

One mating is often sufficient for females to maximize their reproductive effort, females across many different animal taxa mate multiply [1]
Females that had mated first with a multiply-mated or young virgin male were about twice as likely to mate again than those mated for the first time with an old virgin male (χ2 = 22.58; df = 1; P = 2.01x10-6), but the remating probability was similar in these two groups (χ2 = 1.06; df = 1; P = 0.303)
Females that mated with a multiply-mated male remated significantly more often than females that mated with either old or young virgin males (χ2 = 10.40; df = 2; P = 0.006)

Summary

Introduction

One mating is often sufficient for females to maximize their reproductive effort, females across many different animal taxa mate multiply [1]. Females may gain considerable benefits from multiple mating. These include direct benefits such as nutrients, parental care, higher quality breeding areas, protection, and other resources and conditions provided by males that result in higher female fitness [2,3,4,5,6]. Females may mate multiply to improve on previous matings with a genetically inferior male [11]. This is most likely to occur when access to preferable males is limited or a delay in mating has negative effects in reproduction [11]

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