A theoretical study on the evolution of male parental care and female multiple mating: effects of female mate choice and male care bias.
Male parental care and female multiple mating are seen in many species in spite of the cost they entail. Moreover, they even coexist in some species though polyandry, by reducing paternity confidence of caregiving males, seems to hinder the evolution of paternal care. Previous studies have investigated the coevolutionary process of paternal care and polyandry under various simplifying assumptions, including random mating and random provision of male care. We extend these models to examine possible effects of female mate choice and male care bias, assuming that (a) monandrous females mate preferentially with caregiving males while polyandrous females compromise their preference in order to mate with multiple males and (b) caregiving males tend to direct their care to offspring of monandrous females. Our models suggest that both the female preference and the male bias always favor caregiving males while they may not always facilitate the evolution of monandry.
Seki
Motohide
M
Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyoku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. seki_m@biol.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Wakano
Joe Yuichiro
JY
Ihara
Yasuo
Y
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D052586:Mating Preference, Animal; D008954:Models, Biological; D010332:Paternal Behavior; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal