Male parental care, differential parental investment by females and sexual selection

Abstract

Males play a variable parental role in reproduction, ranging from no male parental care to extensive male care. Females may acquire either direct or indirect fitness benefits from their mate choice, and direct fitness benefits include male parental care. Theoreticians have traditionally emphasized direct fitness benefits to females in species with extensive male parental care. We review the literature and show extensive variation in the patterns of male care, related to the attractiveness of males to females. At one extreme of this continuum, females invest differentially in parental care, investing more when paired with attractive males. The costs of female parental care and other aspects of parental investment may be balanced by benefits in terms of more attractive sons and/or more viable offspring. At the other extreme, in species with extensive direct fitness benefits, males with preferred sexual phenotypes provide the largest relative share of parental care. A comparative study of birds revealed that the extent of the differential female parental investment was directly related to the frequency of extra-pair paternity. Since extra-pair paternity may arise mainly as a consequence of female choice for indirect fitness benefits, this result supports our prediction that differential parental investment is prevalent in species where females benefit indirectly from their mate choice. The consequences for sexual selection theory of these patterns of male care in relation to male attractiveness are emphasized.