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What Is Indirect Cryptic Female Choice? Theoretical Considerations and an Example from a Promiscuous Earwig

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Cryptic Female Choice in Arthropods

Abstract

Cryptic female choice (CFC) does not necessarily involve discriminative responses in the female nervous system to sperm from multiple mates. Even without any active sperm-choice mechanisms, polyandrous females can gain genetic benefits by having an arena in which genetically superior sperm are “automatically” sorted. In this chapter, possible mechanisms in this CFC category, termed “indirect CFC ,” are reviewed. A simple theoretical model is developed to examine the hypothesis that females obtain genetic benefits by allowing only partial displacement of stored sperm by subsequent mates. The model predicts that such restricted sperm displacement automatically grants genetic benefits when genetically superior males copulate more times per encounter with the female than less fit males. The promiscuous earwig species, Euborellia plebeja , provides an empirical example of this type of indirect CFC. The elongated female sperm-storage organs allow only partial removal and displacement of stored sperm by shorter male genitalia, resulting in a 20 % gain in paternity per mating. In staged mating trials, large males dominated male–male competition for burrows housing females, resulting in a significant increase in paternity by repeated matings with the same female. A numerical simulation based on this mating pattern showed that restricted sperm displacement (~20 % per mating) is optimal for females to accumulate sperm from larger males. Given that male body size is heritable, females were estimated to gain a 1.4 % increase in their sons’ mating success as a genetic benefit. Advantages and disadvantages of indirect CFC are discussed and compared with precopulatory mate choice and direct CFC.

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Acknowledgments

I thank A. Aisenberg and A. Peretti for the invitation to write this chapter, and G.S. Requena and an anonymous reviewer for useful comments on a previous version of this manuscript. A theoretical model of this chapter (Sect. 10.3) was developed as part of my unpublished doctoral thesis. I am also grateful to T. Suzuki, T. Kusano, and F. Hayashi for their supervision during the study. Writing of this manuscript was supported in part by a Keio Gijuku Academic Development Fund grant from Keio University.

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  1. Department of Biology, Keio University, Hiyoshi, Yokohama, Japan

    Yoshitaka Kamimura

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  1. Yoshitaka Kamimura
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Correspondence to Yoshitaka Kamimura .

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  1. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal, CONICET—Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Cordoba, Argentina

    Alfredo V. Peretti

  2. Laboratorio de Etología, Ecología y Evolución, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Anita Aisenberg

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Kamimura, Y. (2015). What Is Indirect Cryptic Female Choice? Theoretical Considerations and an Example from a Promiscuous Earwig. In: Peretti, A., Aisenberg, A. (eds) Cryptic Female Choice in Arthropods. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17894-3_10

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