Abstract
Female mating with multiple males in a single reproductive period, or polyandry, is a common phenomenon in animals. In this study we investigated variation in female mating behavior and its fitness consequences among three genetic strains of the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. We found that the extent of polyandry and its fitness consequences varied significantly among the strains. In the first strain PRUZ, females mated multiply but incurred costs of polyandry in the form of reduced offspring production. Females of the second strain, NDG11, mated readily with multiple partners and benefited because polyandry led to higher offspring quality. Finally, TIW1 females were resistant to multiple mating and polyandry resulted in lower offspring production but improved offspring quality. Thus, in the first population we observed only costs of polyandry, in the second strain only benefits of polyandry whereas in the third we detected both costs and benefits of polyandry. Possible explanations for such a pattern are discussed.
Highlights
IntroductionSeveral studies have independently shown that populations of red flour beetles have diverged with respect to reproductive traits by conducting crosses between individuals from different populations (Nilsson et al 2002, 2003; Pai and Yan 2002b, Attia and Tregenza 2004) and revealed that male and female genetic background influence various aspects of reproductive success such as mating rate (Nilsson et al 2002), oviposition rate (Attia and Tregenza 2004), and sperm precedence (Pai and Yan 2002b, Nilsson et al 2003)
Female mating behavior has attracted much attention from evolutionary biologists in the past two decades
We examined the relative fitness of 25 F1 males and 25 F1 females from monandrous and polyandrous mothers for each of the three strains (TIW1, NDG11, PRUZ)
Summary
Several studies have independently shown that populations of red flour beetles have diverged with respect to reproductive traits by conducting crosses between individuals from different populations (Nilsson et al 2002, 2003; Pai and Yan 2002b, Attia and Tregenza 2004) and revealed that male and female genetic background influence various aspects of reproductive success such as mating rate (Nilsson et al 2002), oviposition rate (Attia and Tregenza 2004), and sperm precedence (Pai and Yan 2002b, Nilsson et al 2003). Because the behavior and fitness testing was conducted under the same environmental conditions, differences of mating behavior in these populations reflect genetic differences possibly due to different evolutionary ecological forces in the original populations
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