Abstract
The Indian subcontinent shows high levels of seasonal weather variation, but the extent to which mating-related traits (mating latency, copulation duration and number of progeny produced) are being affected by such variations in Drosophila species remain poorly understood. In the present study, we analyzed the effects of seasonal change (humidity and temperature) on mating-related traits of Drosophila melanogaster by mimicking natural conditions in the laboratory. The light body color phenotype is collected in large numbers during the rainy season, while the dark phenotype is prevalent in the winter. We found that a short-term stress, in the form of reduced humidity or temperature, causes a strong climatic selection pressure, which leads to assortative mating and longer copulation duration of the dark phenotype. By contrast, the light phenotype shows higher assortative mating and longer copulation duration after short-term high humidity or high temperature stress. Higher assortative mating and increased copulation duration results in high progeny numbers which may be a cause for the high prevalence of the dark phenotype in winter and the light phenotype in the rainy season. Thus, besides plasticity, seasonal changes in mating propensity can be a potential cause of the change in the frequency of the dark and light phenotypes of D. melanogaster during different seasons.
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Acknowledgments
Kapil Dev and Jyoti Chahal are grateful to Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, for financial assistance in the form of a University Research Scholarship. We are grateful to Mr. Andrew Hamilton for his comments on the language of the MS. We thank two anonymous reviewers for positive and constructive comments on the MS.
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Dev, K., Chahal, J. & Parkash, R. Seasonal variations in the mating-related traits of Drosophila melanogaster . J Ethol 31, 165–174 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-013-0364-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-013-0364-2