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Behavioral Ecology Vol. 13 No. 6: 791-799
© 2002 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

Sexual selection and condition dependence of courtship display in three species of horned dung beetles

Janne S. Kotiaho

Department of Zoology, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, WA-6907, Australia

Address correspondence to J.S. Kotiaho, who is now at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, PO Box 35, FIN-40351, Jyväskylä, Finland. E-mail: jkotiaho{at}cc.jyu.fi.

Received 1 June 2001; revised 19 December 2001; accepted 18 February 2002.


    ABSTRACT
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Sexual selection has traditionally been divided into competition over mates and mate choice. Currently, models of sexual selection predict that sexual traits are expressed in proportion to the condition of their bearer. In horned beetles, male contest competition is well established, but studies on female preferences are scarce. Here I present data on male mating success and condition dependence of courtship rate in three species of horn-dimorphic dung beetles, Onthophagus taurus, Onthophagus binodis, and Onthophagus australis. I found that in the absence of male contest competition, mating success of O. taurus and O. australis was unrelated to their horn length and body size, whereas in O. binodis horn size had a negative effect but body size had a positive effect on male mating success. Overall, in O. binodis major morph males had greater mating success than minor morph males. In all three species male mating success was affected by courtship rate, and the courtship rate was condition dependent such that when males were manipulated to be in poor condition they had lower courtship rates than males that were manipulated to be in good condition. My findings provide new insight into the mating systems of horned dung beetles and support an important assumption in indicator models of sexual selection.

Key words: condition dependence, horn dimorphism, horned dung beetles, logistic regression, mating success, Onthophagus, selection gradient, sexual selection.


    INTRODUCTION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Sexual selection may be defined as fitness differences that arise from variation in traits that affect reproductive success (Andersson, 1994Go; Endler, 1986Go). Traditionally, sexual selection has been divided into competition over mates and mate choice, with males normally being the competing sex and females being the choosing sex (Andersson, 1994Go; Andersson and Iwasa, 1996Go; Darwin, 1871Go; Emlen and Oring, 1977Go). However, these two mechanisms are closely related, and it is likely that in most species they both contribute to evolution through sexual selection. It has been shown that male traits that are traditionally thought to be used as armaments in male contest competition are in fact often targets of female choice (Berglund et al., 1996Go; Tomkins and Simmons, 1998Go). It may also be that male contest cmpetition facilitates female choice by making the differences between males more pronounced, thus increasing the ease and accuracy of female choice (Candolin, 1999aGo, 2000Go).

Currently favored sexual selection models predict that, because sexual traits are costly, they should covary positively with condition (Andersson, 1994Go; Andersson and Iwasa, 1996Go; Johnstone, 1995Go; Rowe and Houle, 1996Go). The prediction of condition dependence of sexual traits is particularly critical for viability indicator or good genes models of sexual selection because condition dependence is a prerequisite for the use of sexual traits as honest indicators of quality (Andersson, 1986Go; Grafen, 1990Go; Kokko, 1998Go; Zahavi, 1977Go; for reviews, see Andersson, 1994Go; Andersson and Iwasa, 1996Go; Johnstone, 1995Go). Moreover, condition-dependent expression of sexual traits and signals has recently gained increasing importance in the theory of good genes sexual selection (Andersson, 1986Go; Rowe and Houle, 1996Go); because it is expected that there is little genetic variance in traits that are closely related to fitness (Charlesworth, 1987Go; Falconer, 1989Go; (Roff, 1997Go), it seems evident that there is little potential for female choice to result in genetic benefits. Among the lines of Andersson (1986Go), Rowe and Houle (1996Go) suggested that this "lek paradox" (Borgia, 1979Go; Kirkpatrick, 1982Go; Taylor and Williams, 1982Go) will be resolved if two assumptions are met: there is genetic variance in condition itself, and traits exhibit positive condition dependence. For this reason, condition-dependent expression of sexual traits has an important role in the theory of sexual selection.

Empirical evidence suggesting that sexual traits and displays are expressed in proportion to condition is accumulating (David et al., 1998Go, 2000Go; Emlen, 1994Go; Frischknecht, 1993Go; Griffith et al., 1999Go; Hunt and Simmons, 1997Go; Keyser and Hill, 1999Go; Kotiaho, 2000Go; Kotiaho et al., 2001Go; Mappes et al., 1996Go; Wilkinson and Taper, 1999Go). It is likely that most traits show some degree of condition dependence. However, there is some evidence that the condition-dependent expression of sexual traits is not always so clear cut. For example, in the three-spined sticklebacks, the red breeding coloration of the males plays an important role in sexual selection (Candolin, 1999aGo, 2000Go) and is generally positively condition dependent (Frischknecht, 1993Go; Milinski and Bakker, 1990Go). However, experiments show that, not only males in good condition, but also males manipulated to be in poor condition, show increased red coloration (Candolin, 1999bGo).

We need more experimental studies on condition dependence to better understand the dynamics of the expression and condition of sexual traits. Direct manipulation of condition is important because quantifying condition for correlational studies is an almost impossible task. This is because condition is a somewhat abstract concept and, as yet, we do not really know what constitutes a good empirical measure of condition (Kotiaho, 1999Go). As far as sexual selection models are concerned, the condition should be seen as an internal state of an individual reflecting the overall pool of resources available for allocation in different traits, and thus condition should account for a large proportion of individual fitness (Rowe and Houle, 1996Go).

My aim in this study was twofold. First, my objective was to determine if, in the absence of male contest competition, male mating success varies with male horn length, body size, or courtship rate in three species of horned dung beetles: Onthophagus taurus, Onthophagus binodis, and Onthophagus australis. I used three species in order to make more general conclusions about the role of measured characters for male mating success in horned beetles. Male contest competition in horned beetles has been extensively studied, and it has been repeatedly concluded that horns function as armaments in male-male combat (Eberhard, 1987Go; Emlen, 1997Go; Moczek and Emlen, 2000Go; Rasmussen, 1994Go; Siva-Jothy, 1987Go). However, studies reporting data relating to the role of these elaborate structures for male mating success in the absence of male contest competition are scarce. My second objective was to experimentally determine if courtship rate of males in these three species show condition dependence. I did this by directly manipulating male condition by altering food intake. By manipulating the food intake, I was able to alter the pool of resources available for allocation to different traits and thus change the condition of individuals.


    METHODS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Study organisms
Individuals of O. australis were collected from a field population in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, and transported to the laboratory in Perth, Western Australia, where all experiments were conducted. Individuals of O. binodis were laboratory-reared F1 offspring of females that were collected from a field population in Walpole, southwestern Western Australia. Individuals of O. taurus were field-collected adults also originating from Walpole.

O. australis and O. taurus have head horns, and O. binodis has pronotal horns. O. taurus and O. binodis males are dimorphic in their horn expression; "minor" males express only rudimentary horns, whereas "major" males express large, well-developed horns (Hunt et al., 1999Go; Kotiaho and Tomkins, 2001Go; Simmons et al., 1999Go). Dimorphism in O. australis males has not been previously analyzed, but an analysis of individuals used in this study revealed that O. australis males also exhibit horn dimorphism: The relationship between natural log-transformed pronotum width and horn length was nonlinear (t test for the second-order polynomial in quadratic regression; t44 = -8.07, p < .001), and the best fitting switch point occurred at a pronotum width of 5.7 mm (R2 = .924). At this point the dimorphism was best characterized by no change in linear slope (ß2 = 0.15 ± 0.63; t44 = 0.24, p = .812) but by a discontinuous distribution of horn lengths (ß3 = 1.13 ± 0.21; t44 = 5.31, p < .001; for methods, see Eberhard and Gutiérrez, 1991Go; Kotiaho and Tomkins, 2001Go). Females of these species have no horns. In all species I used pronotum width as a size measure.

Courtship in all of the three species is similar. Males court by tapping the female's back with their head and forelegs in bouts lasting a few seconds. Courtship rate is calculated as number of such courtship bouts per unit time.

Condition dependence and mating success
Before the experiments, I measured the initial body mass (to the nearest 0.01 mg), horn length, pronotum width, and courtship rate of males. Horn length and pronotum width were measured under binocular microscope to the nearest 0.05 mm. Courtship rate of the males was observed in artificial dung beetle tunnels. Tunnels were constructed from 60-mm long clear plastic vials measuring 13 mm in width and 36 mm in depth. Vials were half-filled with plaster of Paris to create 60-mm long, 13-mm wide, and 17-mm high dung beetle tunnels. The plaster of Paris floors of the tunnels were smeared with dung and dried. Before the trials the floors were moistened with water. One randomly selected female and a male were introduced into a tunnel, and the courtship rate of the males was observed constantly until a mating occurred or up to 30 min (O. australis) or 60 min (O. binodis and O. taurus). The maximum observation time in O. australis was shorter because the initial courtship rate of O. australis males was much higher than that of O. binodis and O. taurus males (see Table 1). Because some males mated during the observations, the time for courtship observations varies. Therefore, I used courtship rate per minute rather than total number of courtship bouts in the analysis. All of the observations were conducted in controlled temperature room in constant temperature and humidity under red lighting.


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Table 1 Correlation table for O. australis, O. binodis, and O. taurus
 

After initial measurements males were divided between two food ration treatments, assuring that morphological measures and initial courtship rates did not differ between the groups. After measurements beetles were housed individually in small plastic containers (7 x 7 x 5 cm) two-thirds filled with moist sand. High food ration males were provided with a constant supply of fresh cow dung, and low food ration males were provided no dung but only moist sand. After 5 (O. taurus) or 10 (O. australis and O. binodis) days on the food manipulation, I repeated the measurements and observations as described above. The duration of the feeding treatment for O. taurus was 5 days because from previous experience with this species I knew that feeding treatment of 5 days is enough to affect male condition. This information was not available for O. australis or O. binodis. Because O. australis and O. binodis are approximately twice the body mass of O. taurus, and because I wanted to be sure that the feeding treatment is effective in changing the condition of the males, I treated males of these species for 10 days.

With the data from the above courtship rate observations, I was able to analyze the effects of horn length, body size, and courtship rate on mating success of the males. In O. binodis there were few matings during the above observations (referred to as experiment 1), and thus I conducted another experiment (experiment 2) to determine the effects of courtship rate on male mating success with a set of 211 virgin labreared F1 males and females. The protocol for the experiment 2 followed that for experiment 1, with the exception that there was no feeding treatment (all males had a constant supply of fresh dung) and that horn length or pronotum width were not individually known. Only the morph (minor or major) of the male was known.

Statistical analysis
I analyzed the effect of food ration treatment on the change in courtship rate and body mass with repeated-measures ANOVAs. The probability of mating was tested with logistic regressions using analysis of deviance. I included in the logistic regressions analyses only those individuals who engaged in courtship during the trial because without courtship there is no possibility for mating to occur. In some instances the data was natural log-transformed to meet the parametric assumptions. If the assumptions could not be met, nonparametric alternatives were used. The sample sizes in the tests are based on 29 individuals of O. australis, 30 individuals of O. binodis in the first, and 211 in the second experiment, and 80 individuals of O. taurus.

To quantify the sexual selection acting on courtship rate, horn length, and pronotum width simultaneously, one needs to use multivariate analyses. Multiple linear regression methods (Arnold and Wade, 1984Go; Lande and Arnold, 1983Go) are not suitable for dependent fitness variables that are non-normally distributed, as in my case the mating success is 0 or 1. For this reason, I used multivariate logistic regression analysis and then used a transformation on the logistic regression co-efficients that is specifically developed for such purpose (Janzen and Stern, 1998Go; see also Hardy and Field, 1998Go). The resulting values can be interpreted the same way as can selection gradients obtained from traditional regression analyses (Arnold and Wade, 1984Go; Brodie et al., 1995Go; Janzen and Stern, 1998Go; Lande and Arnold, 1983Go). To compare results from this study with results of an earlier study on O. taurus (Kotiaho et al., 2001Go), I also calculated the selection intensity (i) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) for courtship rate in all three species (Arnold and Wade, 1984Go; Endler, 1986Go).


    RESULTS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Body mass
Overall, in all three species males lost mass (repeated-measures ANOVA; O. australis: F1,27 = 158.15, p < .001; O. binodis: F1,28 = 159.97, p < .001; O. taurus: F1,78 = 24.69, p < .001), but nevertheless there was an effect of the food treatment such that males on high food ration lost less mass than males on low food ration (repeated-measures ANOVA, interaction term; O. australis: F1,27 = 7.78, p = .010; O. binodis: F1,28 = 42.18, p < .001; O. taurus: F1,78 = 160.37, p < .001; Figure 1).



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Figure 1 Change of body mass in (A) O. australis, (B) O. binodis, and (C) taurus over the experiment in relation to the food ration. Filled symbols represent high food ration; open symbols represent low food ration.

 

Condition dependence of courtship rate
I analyzed the condition dependence of male courtship rate with repeated-measures ANOVA having food ration as a factor and pronotum width as a covariate. In all three species the three-way interaction between food ration, pronotum width, and repeated measure was not significant (O. australis: F1,25 = 0.26, p = .613; O. binodis: F1,26 = 1.73, p = .200; O. taurus: F1,76 = 0.99, p = .323) and was left out from the final analysis. Overall, in all species males increased their courtship rate (repeated-measures ANOVA; O. australis: F1,27 = 26.63, p < .001; O. binodis: F1,28 = 13.50, p = .001; O. taurus: F1,78 = 18.62, p < .001), but males on the high food ration increased their courtship rate more than males on low food ration, as indicated by the significant interaction between food treatment and the repeated measure (repeated-measures ANOVA; O. australis: F1,27 = 5.49, p = .027; O. binodis: F1,28 = 6.89, p = .014; O. taurus: F1,78 = 6.15, p = .015; Figure 2). Pronotum width had no influence on the change in courtship rate (repeated-measures ANOVA, interaction term; O. australis: F1,26 = 1.10, p = .304; O. binodis: F1,27 = 0.03, p = .861; O. taurus: F1,77 = 0.44, p = .507). There was a positive correlation between initial courtship rate and courtship rate after food manipulation in O. australis (rs29 = .39, p = .035) and in O. taurus (rs80 = .28, p = .013), but not in O. binodis (rs30 = 0.02, p = .906). In all of the species, neither initial courtship rates nor after manipulation were correlated with pronotum width or horn length (Table 1).



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Figure 2 Change of courtship rate per minute in (A) O. australis, (B) O. binodis, and (C) O. taurus over the experiment in relation to the food ration. Filled symbols represent high food ration; open symbols represent low food ration.

 

Sexual selection on courtship rate, horn length, and pronotum width
In O. australis and O. taurus, male mating success was tested twice: first when initial courtship rate was observed and second after the food manipulations (Tables 2 and 3). The two tests produced similar results: In both species courtship rate was a significant determinant of male mating success (Figure 3), but horn length and pronotum width were not important (Tables 2 and 3).


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Table 2 Analysis of deviance in logistic regression for probability of mating in O. australis before and after manipulation
 

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Table 3 Analysis of deviance in logistic regression for probability of mating in O. taurus before and after manipulation
 


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Figure 3 Probability of mating in relation to courtship rate in (A) O. australis, (B) O. binodis, and (C) O. taurus. Black diamonds represent the actual data, and gray dots represent the predicted probability of mating.

 

In O. binodis the mating success of males was tested three times with two different experiments. The first experiment used the same methodology as above, and mating success was tested twice: first time when initial courtship rate was observed and second after the food manipulations. During the initial courtship-rate observations, the mean courtship rate of males was low (0.07 bouts per min), and there was only one mating. For this reason, testing for male mating success was not conducted. After food manipulation the courtship rate increased, but there were still only four matings. Nevertheless, I tested the probability of mating after food manipulation with logistic regression. The overall logistic regression model including courtship rate, horn length, and pronotum width was significant (Table 4). Courtship rate significantly improved the model in which horn length and pronotum width were in the model alone. However, when courtship rate was already in the model, both horn length and pronotum width improved the model significantly (Table 4). I analyzed the second experiment on O. binodis male mating success with a logistic regression with male morph (minor or major) as a categorical covariate and courtship rate as continuous covariate. Courtship rate had a strong positive effect on the probability of mating (Figure 3 and Table 4), but male morph also had an effect such that major males had greater probability of mating than minor males (Table 4). In those males that engaged in courtship (117 out of 211), major males had marginally higher courtship rates than minor males (independent samples t test, t63.6 = -2.06, n1 = 73, n2 = 44, p = .043).


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Table 4 Analysis of deviance in logistic regression for probability of mating in O. binodis during the first experiment and the second experiment
 

I calculated the selection gradients for courtship rate, horn length, and pronotum width for each species from the second courtship observation using the methodology of Janzen and Stern (1998Go). The selection gradients for courtship rate in all species were moderate but statistically significant (Table 5). For horn length and for pronotum width, the gradient was not significantly different from zero in O. australis and O. taurus, but in O. binodis the gradient was negative for horn length but positive for pronotum width (Table 5). The statistical significance of the selection gradients can be addressed using the results from the logistic regression (Tables 2,3,4). In Figure 3 I have depicted the logistic regression selection surface for courtship rate. In this analysis I used the second courtship observations for O. australis and O. taurus, and for O. binodis I used the observations from the second experiment. Selection differentials show directional selection for greater courtship rate in all species, and the intensity of this selection (standardized univariate selection differential) was moderately high and significantly different from zero for all three species (intensity of directional selection [i] with 95% confidence intervals and significance test; O. australis: i = 0.976, CI = 0.265-1.688; t37 = 2.78, n1 = 29, n2 = 10, p = .009; O. binodis: i = 0.894, CI = 0.516-1.273; t80.3 = 4.70, n1 = 211, n2 = 62, p < .001; O. taurus: i = 1.191, CI = 0.499-1.883; t22.7 = 3.57, n1 = 80, n2 = 19, p = .002).


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Table 5 Logistic regression coefficients ({alpha}), their standard errors, significance levels, and estimated average selection gradients (ß) for courtship rate, horn length, and body size in O. australis and O. binodis in the first experiment, O. binodis in the second experiment, and O. taurus
 


    DISCUSSION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
It has been well documented that horns in several beetle species function as armaments that are used in combats with conspecific males over access to females (Eberhard, 1979Go, 1982Go, 1987Go; Emlen, 1997Go; Moczek and Emlen, 2000Go; Otronen, 1988Go; Palmer, 1978Go; Rasmussen, 1994Go; Siva-Jothy, 1987Go). Males often show bimodal variation in their horn morphology (Cook, 1987Go; Emlen, 1994Go; Kotiaho and Tomkins, 2001Go; Simmons et al., 1999Go), and this variation has been shown to be associated with various alternative reproductive strategies: Minor males have been described to adopt sneaking roles trying to avoid confrontations with competitively superior major males (Emlen, 1997Go; Moczek and Emlen, 2000Go), while major males have been described to guard females (Cook, 1990Go; Emlen, 1997Go) and provide females with paternal care (Cook, 1988Go; Hunt and Simmons, 1998Go, 2000Go). Generally, horn morphologies have been examined from the male contest competition perspective, and the few scattered studies or descriptive observations on male mating success suggests that females do not reject courting males but engage in mating regardless of male horn morphology (Brown et al., 1985Go; Emlen, 1997Go; Moczek and Emlen, 2000Go).

Here I presented data on mating success of three species of horned dung beetles in the absence of male contest competition. It is clear that in O. australis and in O. taurus, male horn morphology was not related to males mating success. However, in O. binodis male mating success was related to their horn morphology: major males had higher mating success than minor males. Having said this, it seems that body size is under positive sexual selection, whereas horn size is under negative sexual selection.

There are some important differences in the reproductive behavior of O. binodis and O. taurus that may explain the above difference in male mating success with respect to the size of the male. When O. binodis females are paired with large males, they produce more offspring than females paired with small males (Cook, 1988Go), but in O. taurus such a difference does not exist (Hunt and Simmons, 1998Go, 2000Go). In O. australis these aspects have not been studied. It may be that in O. binodis the benefit in terms of greater number of offspring from mating with large males (Cook, 1988Go) is large enough to result in evolution of female preference for larger males. In contrast, O. taurus females do not benefit from mating with larger males by having more offspring but rather by having larger offspring (Hunt and Simmons, 1998Go, 2000Go; Hunt et al., 2002Go). Currently it is not entirely clear how female O. taurus might benefit from having large offspring, although it may be that major males have higher reproductive success than minor males: competition experiments on different morph frequencies suggest that in most morph frequencies, major males fertilize the majority of eggs produced (Hunt J and Simmons LW, unpublished data). Yet, if the fitness benefit of mating with a large male is not substantial enough in comparison to mating with a small male, female preference for male size may not have evolved in O. taurus. The result that there was positive selection on body size but negative selection on horn size in O. binodis was surprising. To determine the reason for these differential selection pressures requires further in-depth examination.

Courtship rate consistently had a strong positive effect on male mating success across all three species. In earlier studies with O. taurus we found that male courtship rate is heritable (Kotiaho et al., 2001Go), suggesting that females may benefit from their preference through increased mating success of their male offspring. However, whether increased mating success results from female preference is not clear. There is a possibility that the same result may be found if resisting matings is costly for females and to reduce this cost females accept matings from persistently courting males more easily than from males that court with low frequency. If this is the case, then differential mating success does not necessarily result from females seeking fitness benefits but rather from females seeking to reduce the fitness costs. There is some evidence from O. taurus that male harassment may be costly for the females in terms of reducing the number of offspring produced (Hunt and Simmons, 1998Go; but see Hunt and Simmons, 2000Go). The duration of mating in these three species is less than 10 min, and after mating males do not immediately engage into further courtship (Kotiaho, personal observation). How long males refrain from harassing females with their courtship is not known. If the time spent mating with a male is less than the time that would be spent resisting male mating, and if there are few other costs of mating, it is likely that females will mate with highly courting males with little resistance. To determine whether higher mating success resulting from high courtship rates is female preference in search for fitness benefits or female avoidance of harassment in search of reduced costs is complicated and cannot be answered with the current data. However, it is important to note that whatever the proximate mechanism for the higher mating success of males with high courtship rates is, the ultimate benefit of mating with such males remains the same. In other words, because courtship rate is heritable (Kotiaho et al., 2001Go), females preferring males of high courtship rate would benefit from having sons with higher mating success. Similarly, females that do not choose but simply allow high courtship males to mate with them benefit by having sons with higher mating success.

In this study I used field-collected adult O. taurus females that are likely to be mated, and the selection intensity for higher courtship rate was 1.191 with a lower 95% CI of 0.499. In an earlier study with the same methodology but using virgin females, the selection intensity for higher courtship rates was only 0.331 with an upper 95% CI of 0.491 (Kotiaho et al., 2001Go). As the 95% CIs do not overlap, this difference may be considered to be statistically significant. This difference suggests that virgin females mate with less rigorous mating rules than already mated females do. Unfortunately, these data are not able to discriminate between the above-mentioned two mechanisms of differential mating success of high courtship rate males. The selection intensity may increase because females increase their mate choice criteria after first mating or because females do not need another mating and begin to resist matings to reduce the possible costs of mating. However, because virgin females also discriminate against males based on their courtship rate (Kotiaho et al., 2001Go), it seems that mate choice may be the mechanism that is at least partly driving the observed patterns of male mating success.

A critical prediction in all currently favored sexual selection models, and in particular in indicator or good genes models, is that, because sexual traits are costly, they should covary positively with condition (Andersson, 1986Go, 1994Go; Andersson and Iwasa, 1996Go; Johnstone, 1995Go; Rowe and Houle, 1996Go). Along the lines of Andersson (1986Go), Rowe and Houle (1996Go) suggested that the "lek paradox" (Borgia, 1979Go; Kirkpatrick, 1982Go; Kirkpatrick and Ryan, 1991Go; Taylor and Williams, 1982Go) will be resolved if two assumptions are met: Traits exhibit positive condition dependence and there is genetic variance in condition itself (Andersson, 1986Go; Rowe and Houle, 1996Go). In this study I found that the courtship rate of the males in all three species responded to the manipulation of male phenotypic condition. In all species, males that were manipulated to have abundant resources had higher courtship rate than males manipulated to have limited resources. As resources are generally expected to be in short supply, experimentally constraining males from resource intake is likely to manifest a trade-off between expenditure in the displays and expenditure in other life-history traits, something which is impossible to unravel with correlational studies. Thus, it may be that most behavioral sexual traits will respond to an experimental manipulation of available resources because displays typically require some expenditure of resources (Kotiaho, 2001Go).

In conclusion, in the absence of male contest competition, male mating success in three species of dung beetles was dependent on their courtship rate. In O. binodis larger males had higher mating success than smaller males, but horn length had a negative effect on male mating success. In O. taurus and in O. australis male mating success was independent of body size and horn length. In all three species manipulation of available resources had an effect on courtship rate, indicating that courtship rate is positively condition dependent.


    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 
I thank John Hunt, Esa Koskela, Silja Parri, Leigh Simmons, and Joseph Tomkins for comments on the manuscript and discussions and John Hunt for discussion of his viewpoints and unpublished results. This work was funded by the Academy of Finland.


    REFERENCES
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
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