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Size-assortative mating in simultaneous hermaphrodites: an experimental test and a meta-analysis

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Abstract

Assortative mating by size has been argued to be widespread in the animal kingdom. However, the strength of size-assortative mating is known to vary considerably between species and the underlying mechanisms promoting this inter-specific variation remain largely unexplored. Size-assortative mating has been proposed to be particularly strong in simultaneous hermaphrodites, i.e. organisms that produce male and female gametes at the same time. Here, we build on this hypothesis by arguing that size-assortative mating mediated by sexual selection is generally stronger in reciprocally mating hermaphrodites compared with unilaterally mating species and separate-sexed organisms. We report a series of empirical tests suggesting that size-assortative mating in the unilaterally copulating freshwater snail Physa acuta is caused by spatial clustering of similar-sized individuals and not by mate choice. In addition, we present a meta-analysis testing, for the first time, the hypothesis that sexual selection-mediated size-assortative mating is stronger in reciprocally copulating simultaneous hermaphrodites. Overall, we found significant size-assortative mating across 18 tested species and substantial inter-specific variation. Importantly, part of this variation can be explained by mating type, providing support for the hypothesis that size-assortative mating is stronger in reciprocally mating hermaphrodites compared with unilaterally mating species. We highlight potential pitfalls when testing for sexual selection-mediated size-assortative mating and discuss the need for more experimental and comparative approaches in order to resolve the observed variation in the strength of size-assortative mating among species.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Violette Sarda and Nicolas Juillet for providing technical support. We also thank Philippe Jarne and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. This project was funded by grants of the Swiss National Science Foundation to T.J. (SNSF grant no: PA00P3-145375/1) and the French National Research Agency to P.D. (ANR ESHAP, ANR-12-BSV7-0015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, UMR 5175, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293, Montpellier Cedex 05, France

    Stuart Graham, Elodie Chapuis, Stefania Meconcelli, Nicolas Bonel, Kevin Sartori, Ananda Christophe, Patrice David & Tim Janicke

  2. IRD, UMR186 “Intéractions Plantes-Microrganismes-Environement”, 911, Avenue Agropolis, BP 64501, 34394, Montpellier Cedex 05, France

    Elodie Chapuis

  3. Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, Università di Torino, Turin, Italy

    Stefania Meconcelli

  4. Laboratorio de Zoología de Invertebrados I, Departamento de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahía Blanca, Argentina

    Nicolas Bonel

  5. Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores (CEPAVE, CCT-La Plata-CONICET-UNLP), Avenida 120 s/n e/61 y 62, 1900, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Pilar Alda

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  1. Stuart Graham
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Correspondence to Tim Janicke.

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Communicated by J. C. Choe

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Graham, S., Chapuis, E., Meconcelli, S. et al. Size-assortative mating in simultaneous hermaphrodites: an experimental test and a meta-analysis. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 69, 1867–1878 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-1999-5

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