Moth Mating: Modeling Female Pheromone Calling and Male Navigational Strategies to Optimize Reproductive Success

Tracy L Stepien,Rocío Marilyn Caja Rivera,Maria R D’Orsogna,James B Hengenius,Alan E Lindsay,Cole Zmurchok

doi:10.3390/app10186543

Tracy L Stepien, Rocío Marilyn Caja Rivera + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/app10186543

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Male and female moths communicate in complex ways to search for and to select a mate. In a process termed calling, females emit small quantities of pheromones, generating plumes that spread in the environment. Males detect the plume through their antennae and navigate toward the female. The reproductive process is marked by female choice and male–male competition, since multiple males aim to reach the female but only the first can mate with her. This provides an opportunity for female selection on male traits such as chemosensitivity to pheromone molecules and mobility. We develop a mathematical framework to investigate the overall mating likelihood, the mean first arrival time, and the quality of the first male to reach the female for four experimentally observed female calling strategies unfolding over a typical one-week mating period. We present both analytical solutions of a simplified model as well as results from agent-based numerical simulations. Our findings suggest that, by adjusting call times and the amount of released pheromone, females can optimize the mating process. In particular, shorter calling times and lower pheromone titers at onset of the mating period that gradually increase over time allow females to aim for higher-quality males while still ensuring that mating occurs by the end of the mating period.

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Moths, of the order Lepidoptera, are one of the largest groups in the animal kingdom, with nearly160,000 species tallied in almost all land habitats
We studied different sexual selection methods used by female moths to attract males with high-quality traits: faster flight speed/diffusivity and better ability to sense small concentrations of pheromone, i.e., chemosensitivity
Since male moth navigation and pheromone dynamics typically occur at fixed altitude, we only considered two-dimensional representations

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Introduction

Of the order Lepidoptera, are one of the largest groups in the animal kingdom, with nearly160,000 species tallied in almost all land habitats. Many more have yet to be described These insects are highly adaptable to the local environment and develop close relationships with local food sources and other organisms; as a result, they are highly diverged in morphology and biology and display extraordinarily diverse colors, shapes, and sizes. The lifetime of a moth is divided into four periods: Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 6543 the egg, larva, pupa, and adult stages. The length of these periods depends on the specific species, habitat, climate, and available food sources, but in most cases, the adult stage varies between a few days (the yucca and silkworm moths) to a few months (the common brown house moth). A moth’s mating period mostly coincides with the adult stage (Lees and Zilli [1])

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