Females “Assist” Sneaker Males to Dupe Dominant Males in a Rare Endemic Damselfly: Sexual Conflict at Its Finest

Abstract

One common view in sexual selection is that females select the fittest male. By investigating the reproductive behavior of an endemic damselfly, Calopteryx exul, in Northeast Algeria, I showed that this is not always the case. To avoid the costly repeated copulations, the female hosting the sneaker's sperm (low-quality male) tends to avoid the dominant male by landing near another female, which confuses the dominant male who ends up copulating with a different female. Hence, the female indirectly assists the sneaker male. This finding advances our view about the mechanisms underlying the maintenance of phenotypic and genetic variability. Photo credit: Rassim Khelifa. Photo credit: Rassim Khelifa. Photo credit: Rassim Khelifa. Photo credit: Rassim Khelifa. These photographs illustrate the article “Females ‘assist’ sneaker males to dupe dominant males in a rare endemic damselfly: sexual conflict at its finest” by Rassim Khelifa published in Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2811