Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Lay Summary
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 (7)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lorch, P. D.
Right arrow Articles by Chao, L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Lorch, P. D.
Right arrow Articles by Chao, L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Behavioral Ecology Vol. 14 No. 5: 679-686
© 2003 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

Selection for multiple mating in females due to mates that reduce female fitness

Patrick D. Lorcha, and Lin Chaob

a Biology Department, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario L5L 1C6 Canada b Department of Biology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0116, USA

Address correspondence to P.D. Lorch, who is now at the Biology Department, University of North Carolina, CB# 3280 Labs, Coker Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3280, USA. E-mail: plorch{at}email.unc.edu.

If females are unable to discriminate among males before mating, remating by females that store sperm may have evolved as a hedge against having only "costly" mates (less preferred males that reduce her fitness). However, the benefit of remating is not guaranteed because she can also mate by chance with another costly male. We devised a model to explain the evolution of female remating by representing female fitness as a function of the proportion of costly mates. We examined the effect of a linear, a concave-up, and a concave-down fitness function and found that only the latter favors the evolution of female remating. With a concave-down function, females mating with 50% costly mates have nearly the same fitness as do females with none. A biological interpretation for a concave-down function is that sperm from good males are better at competing with sperm from costly males or are more preferred by females. A concave-up function implies the reverse, whereas a linear function will occur when sperm are equally competitive. We review specific situations in nature that might produce a concave-down function and find evidence that sterility and intragenomic conflict are two phenomena capable of driving the evolution of female remating by our model.

Key words: bet hedging, female remating, intragenomic conflict, segregation distorter, sperm choice, sperm competition.


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
P. M. Waser and J. A. De Woody
Multiple paternity in a philopatric rodent: the interaction of competition and choice
Behav. Ecol., November 1, 2006; 17(6): 971 - 978.
[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.