Abstract
BackgroundConflicts of interest between the sexes are increasingly recognized as an engine driving the (co-)evolution of reproductive traits. The reproductive behaviour of Drosophila montana suggests the occurrence of sexual conflict over the duration of copulation. During the last stages of copulation, females vigorously attempt to dislodge the mounting male, while males struggle to maintain genital contact and often successfully extend copulations far beyond the females' preferred duration.ResultsBy preventing female resistance, we show that females make a substantial contribution towards shortening copulations. We staged matings under different sex ratio conditions, and provide evidence that copulation duration is a form of male reproductive investment that responds to the perceived intensity of sperm competition as predicted by game theoretical models. Further, we investigated potential benefits to persistent males, and costs to females coerced into longer matings. While males did not benefit in terms of increased progeny production by protracting copulation, female remating was delayed after long first copulations.ConclusionCopulation time is a trait subject to sexual conflict. Mating durations exceeding female optima serve males as a form of 'extended mate guarding': by inducing mating refractoriness in the female, a male extends the time over which its sperm is exclusively used to sire progeny and reduces the likelihood of the female being reinseminated by a competitor.
Highlights
Conflicts of interest between the sexes are increasingly recognized as an engine driving theevolution of reproductive traits
Female reluctance behaviour effectively contributes to reducing copulation durations
Mating interruptions The reproductive output in terms of egg production, egg hatching success and larvae production of females whose matings were interrupted at predetermined times showed an overall positive relationship with copulation duration, up to a certain plateau (Figures 2a–c)
Summary
Conflicts of interest between the sexes are increasingly recognized as an engine driving the (co-)evolution of reproductive traits. Evolutionary conflicts of interest between the sexes are common, and increasingly recognized as a powerful force driving the evolution of traits involved in reproduction [3,4,5,6]. Sexual conflict is expected to fuel the evolution of adaptations that bias the outcome of reproduction towards one sex, even at the expense of the fitness interests of the other. The latter sex should evolve countermeasures that effectively minimize the costs of sexual interactions. The intraspecific conflict between males and females arises for control over aspects of reproduction such as mating rate, female propensity to remate, female proximate fecundity, or relative parental effort (reviewed in [4])
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