Abstract
Molecular techniques have substantially improved our knowledge of postcopulatory sexual selection. Nevertheless, studies examining sperm utilization in natural populations of nonsocial insects are rare, support for sperm selection (biased use of stored sperm, e.g. to match offspring genotypes to prevailing environmental conditions) is elusive, and its relevance within natural populations unknown. We performed an oviposition site choice experiment in the field where female yellow dung flies Scathophaga stercoraria could deposit eggs into three different microenvironments on a dung pat (the east–west ridge, north- or south-exposed side), and genotyped the offspring and sperm remaining in storage after oviposition. Females exhibited plasticity in the number of eggs deposited according to pat age. Additionally, temperature strongly influenced egg placement: the warmer the temperature, the higher the proportion of eggs laid into the north-exposed side of dung. The number of ejaculates in storage differed amongst spermathecae, and females stored sperm from more males than fathered their offspring (2.11 sires vs. 2.84 males within sperm stores). Mean last male paternity was 83.4%, roughly matching previous laboratory estimates. Importantly, we found no evidence that females selectively lay eggs of different genotypes, by biasing paternity towards certain males, depending on offspring’s microclimate. Thus, while we show female choice over number of eggs and where these are deposited, there was no evidence for sperm selection. We further revealed positive effects of multiple mating on total number of offspring and proportion of offspring emerging from the dung. We argue that the integration of field studies and laboratory experiments is essential to promote our understanding of polyandry and cryptic female choice.
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Acknowledgments
We thank two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments on the manuscript. We thank Wolf Blanckenhorn, Tony Wilson, and Erik Postma for discussions on statistical analyses and for valuable comments on the manuscript. Thanks also to Claudia Buser for help with dissections and Yves Choffat for help with genotyping the offspring. This work was funded by the University of Zurich and by a grant from the Claraz-Stiftung to MD. OYM was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNF (Ambizione grant PZ00P3_121777/1 & research grant 31003A_125144/1). LFB was supported by the University of Stirling.
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Demont, M., Martin, O.Y. & Bussière, L.F. Wild yellow dung fly females may not select sperm based on dung pat microclimate but could nevertheless benefit from polyandry. Evol Ecol 26, 715–731 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-011-9519-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-011-9519-1