title: Do female Nicrophorus vespilloides reduce direct costs by choosing males that mate less frequently?
abstract: Sexual conflict occurs when selection to maximize fitness in one sex does so at the expense of the other sex. In the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, repeated mating provides assurance of paternity at a direct cost to female reproductive productivity. To reduce this cost, females could choose males with low repeated mating rates or smaller, servile males. We tested this by offering females a dichotomous choice between males from lines selected for high or low mating rate. Each female was then allocated her preferred or non-preferred male to breed. Females showed no preference for males based on whether they came from lines selected for high or low mating rates. Pairs containing males from high mating rate lines copulated more often than those with low line males but there was a negative relationship between female size and number of times she mated with a non-preferred male. When females bred with their preferred male the number of offspring reared increased with female size but there was no such increase when breeding with non-preferred males. Females thus benefited from being choosy, but this was not directly attributable to avoidance of costly male repeated mating.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, Penryn TR10 9EZ, UK p.hopwood@exeter.ac.uk.
authors.forename: P E
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1511-3705
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Hopwood
authors.affiliation: Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
authors.forename: G P F
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Mazué
authors.affiliation: Centro Nacional del Medio Ambiente, Universidad de Chile, Avenida Larrain 9975, La Reina, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.affiliation: Division of Evolution, Ecology and Genetics, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Acton, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Head
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, Penryn TR10 9EZ, UK n.j.royle@exeter.ac.uk.
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Royle
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D052586:Mating Preference, Animal
keywords: direct fitness cost; female preference; mate choice; sexual conflict