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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on November 21, 2007
Behavioral Ecology 2008 19(1):94-99; doi:10.1093/beheco/arm101
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© The Author 2007. 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

Age-related decrease in male reproductive success and song quality in Drosophila montana

Anneli Hoikkalaa, Mari Saarikettub, Janne S. Kotiahoa and Jaana O. Liimatainenb

a Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, Jyväskylä 40014 Finland b Department of Biology, University of Oulu, Oulu 90014, Finland

Address correspondence to A. Hoikkala. E-mail: anhoikka{at}bytl.jyu.fi.


  Abstract

In the present paper, we have studied the effects of aging on male reproductive success and song quality in Drosophila montana. We analyzed the reproductive success of wild-caught males at their normal breeding age during the mating season and after maintaining the males in laboratory from 1 to 5 months. In line with the mutation accumulation theory of aging, none of the factors affecting the reproductive success of wild-caught males during the mating season were related to male longevity. However, mating activity and progeny production of the males decreased with male age. Interestingly, there was no significant variation in progeny production between males at their normal breeding age, whereas at older age, the variation between males becomes significant. The quality of sexually selected song traits deteriorated with male age in concert with the decrease in male reproductive success. The size of the males did not have an effect on male reproductive success at the normal breeding age, but at older age, larger males were able to maintain the sexually selected carrier frequency of the song at higher level than the smaller males. We conclude that by experimentally extending the reproductive age of the males beyond that which they normally experience in nature, it is possible to expose relationships between reproductive success, sexually selected characters, and body size that are not apparent when analyzed for the males at their normal breeding age.

Key words: aging, condition, reproductive success, song quality.

Received 6 February 2007; revised 28 September 2007; accepted 30 September 2007.


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