Mate choice intensifies motor signalling in Drosophila
Date
11/2017Grant ID
213780
NE/I014632/1
Keywords
Metadata
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Abstract
Mate choice has the potential to act on the evolution of motor performance via its direct influence on motor sexual signals. However, studies demonstrating this are rare. Here, we performed an in-depth analysis of Drosophila pseudoobscura courtship song rate, a motor signal under mate choice in this species, and analysed the response of this signal to sexual selection manipulation using experimental evolution. We show that manipulating the opportunity for sexual selection led to changes in song production rate and singing endurance, with males from the polyandrous populations producing faster song rates over longer time periods than males from monogamous populations. We also show that song rate was correlated with estimates of overall courtship vigour. Our results suggest that the action of mate choice on a motor signal has affected male motor performance displayed during courtship. We consider potential selective benefits associated with changes in motor performance, including condition-dependent signalling, and discuss the implications of these results for the study of motor signals under sexual selection.
Citation
Debelle , A , Courtiol , A , Ritchie , M G & Snook , R R 2017 , ' Mate choice intensifies motor signalling in Drosophila ' , Animal Behaviour , vol. 133 , pp. 169-187 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.09.014
Publication
Animal Behaviour
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0003-3472Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.09.014
Description
This work was funded by the Marie Curie Initial Training Network ‘Understanding the evolutionary origin of biological diversity’ (ITN-2008- 213780 SPECIATION; M.G.R.), and by a US National Science Foundation grant (R.R.S.) (DEB-0093149) and NERC grants (R.R.S. and M.G.R.; NE/B504065/1, NE/D003741/1, NE/I014632/1).Collections
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