Skip Navigation


Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on May 18, 2005
Behavioral Ecology 2005 16(4):800-804; doi:10.1093/beheco/ari057
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Lay Summary
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
16/4/800    most recent
ari057v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (6)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Dukas, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Dukas, R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Learning affects mate choice in female fruit flies

Reuven Dukas

Animal Behaviour Group, Department of Psychology, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada

Address correspondence to R. Dukas. E-mail: dukas{at}mcmaster.ca.

Learning in the context of mate choice can influence sexual selection and speciation. Relatively little work, however, has been conducted on the role of learning in the context of mate choice, and this topic has been mostly ignored in insects even though insects have served as a prime model system in research on sexual selection and incipient speciation. Extending recent work indicating apparently adaptive learning in the context of sexual behavior by male fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), I tested for the effect of learning on mate choice by female fruit flies. Compared to young virgin females that experienced courtship by large males, young virgin females that experienced courtship by small males were more likely to mate with small and large males in a test conducted a day after the experience phase. These results, which are the first clear empirical demonstration of learning in the context of mate choice by female insects, lay the foundation for research on the role of learning in insect sexual selection and speciation.

Key words: courtship, Drosophila, fruit flies, learning, mate choice, speciation.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Behav EcolHome page
E. A. Hebets and C. J. Vink
Experience leads to preference: experienced females prefer brush-legged males in a population of syntopic wolf spiders
Behav. Ecol., November 1, 2007; 18(6): 1010 - 1020.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.