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Female Choice in Damselflies and Dragonflies

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Cryptic Female Choice in Arthropods

Abstract

Odonates have been frequently labeled as a taxa where males control female’s mating and fertilization decisions. Contrary to this position, in our contribution, we review instances where females can actually show choice of mates. Previous to mating, possible selected male traits are wing pigmentation, ability to defend oviposition sites , body color, and temperature. Females may assess male stimulation during copulation, responding via sperm ejection of previous males’ sperm. Benefits females may derive from choosing males that can affect offspring are as follows: an increased ability to withstand pathogen infections (for both male and female offspring) or ability to stimulate, attractiveness , and fighting ability (for male offspring only). Finally, we discuss that even for traits that clearly seem to control female reproductive decisions, i.e., abdominal claspers , there is no conclusive evidence that shows that they have evolved and are maintained via male–male competition. Our review thus emphasizes that we are far from admitting that females have little or no reproductive control in this taxa.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to R. Guillermo-Ferreira and, our long-lasting colleague, A. Cordero Rivera for their constructive comments to a previous version. Our research in odonates has been generously supported by PAPIIT grants 204610, 211506, 212506, 216808, and 222312. Thanks to R. I. Martínez Becerril for their logistic help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apdo. Postal 70-275 Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, México D.F, México

    Alex Córdoba-Aguilar, Daniel González-Tokman, Ángela Nava-Bolaños, Karina Cuevas-Yáñez, Miguel Rivas & Adriana Nava-Sánchez

  2. Instituto de Ecología, A. C., Antiguo camino a Coatepec 351, El Haya, 91070, Xalapa, VER, México

    Daniel González-Tokman

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  1. Alex Córdoba-Aguilar
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  2. Daniel González-Tokman
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  3. Ángela Nava-Bolaños
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  4. Karina Cuevas-Yáñez
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  5. Miguel Rivas
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  6. Adriana Nava-Sánchez
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Correspondence to Alex Córdoba-Aguilar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  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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Córdoba-Aguilar, A., González-Tokman, D., Nava-Bolaños, Á., Cuevas-Yáñez, K., Rivas, M., Nava-Sánchez, A. (2015). Female Choice in Damselflies and Dragonflies. In: Peretti, A., Aisenberg, A. (eds) Cryptic Female Choice in Arthropods. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17894-3_9

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