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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on May 5, 2006
Behavioral Ecology 2006 17(4):628-632; doi:10.1093/beheco/ark007
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Resource-dependent nuptial feeding in Panorpa vulgaris: an honest signal for male quality

S. Engels and K. P. Sauer

Institut für Evolutionsbiologie und Ökologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, An der Immenburg 1, 53121 Bonn, Germany

Address correspondence to S. Engels. E-mail: sengels{at}evolution.uni-bonn.de.

In mating systems that are characterized by resource-dependent male behavior like nuptial feeding, food limitation obviously plays a major role in male performance. In Panorpa vulgaris (Mecoptera: Panorpidae), the ability to produce nuptial gifts has major fitness consequences as the number of gifts determines copulation duration, which then determines the number of eggs fertilized by a given male. In the present study, we are able to show that males of P. vulgaris were limited in their production of salivary secretions. The number of saliva secretions males were able to produce declined in successive matings. Moreover, males of nutritionally high status produced more gifts than those of nutritionally low status. The proximate factor determining male saliva secretion was the development of the salivary gland, which in turn depended on the amount of food a male could access. The degree of male mating effort corresponded to the size of the salivary gland, yet while absolute investment increased with gland size, the relative investment decreased. Mating costs for males thus depend on nutritional status.

Key words: female and male choice, indicator theory, Mecoptera, nuptial feeding, sexual selection.


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