Abstract
The fitness consequences of mate choice are a source of ongoing debate in evolutionary biology. Recent theory predicts that indirect benefits of female choice due to offspring inheriting superior genes are likely to be negated when there are direct costs associated with choice, including any costs of mating with attractive males. To estimate the fitness consequences of mating with males of varying attractiveness, we housed female house crickets, Acheta domesticus, with either attractive or unattractive males and measured a variety of direct and indirect fitness components. These fitness components were combined to give relative estimates of the number of grandchildren produced and the intrinsic rate of increase (relative net fitness). We found that females mated to attractive males incur a substantial survival cost. However, these costs are cancelled out and may be outweighed by the benefits of having offspring with elevated fitness. This benefit is due predominantly, but not exclusively, to the effect of an increase in sons' attractiveness. Our results suggest that the direct costs that females experience when mating with attractive males can be outweighed by indirect benefits. They also reveal the value of estimating the net fitness consequences of a mating strategy by including measures of offspring quality in estimates of fitness.
Highlights
Whether mate choice can be maintained by indirect selection when females incur direct costs by being choosy is the subject of ongoing theoretical controversy [1,2,3,4,5]
Females that mated with attractive males did, experience higher relative intrinsic rates of increase than females mated with unattractive males (Table 2)
When looking at the fitness components individually, the strongest effects were a survival cost experienced by females mated to attractive males (Figure 1), and an indirect benefit because sons of attractive males were more than twice as likely to mate as those of unattractive males
Summary
Whether mate choice can be maintained by indirect selection when females incur direct costs by being choosy is the subject of ongoing theoretical controversy [1,2,3,4,5]. Weatherhead and Robertson [6] suggested 25 y ago that the genetic benefits of mating with an attractive male could outweigh the cost of reduced investment in parental care that such a male makes. This suggestion has been opposed by several important theoretical models [5,7,8]. Some recent theoretical work has suggested that because of the weakness of indirect selection relative to direct selection, genetic benefits of choice are likely to have little effect on the evolution of costly mate choice [2,3]. This assertion has been contested by other theoretical work [1]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
