Mating Systems

The term ‘mating system’ is used to describe how males and females obtain mates in a population (Emlen and Oring, 1977; Thornhill and Alcock, 1982; Davies, 1991; Brown et al., 1997). A particular mating system may be characterised by the events surrounding pair formation, courtship, copulation and the postcopulatory events (Brown et al., 1997). Individual males and females engage in reproductive behaviours that maximise their own fitness, frequently to the detriment of their mates. Evolutionary biologists have come to regard events surrounding mating as a set of intrasexual and inter-sexual ‘battles’ which reflect the sometimes common, sometimes differing, reproductive interests of males and females (e.g. Davies, 1991; Brown, et al. 1997; Choe and Crespi, 1997; Alonzo and Warner, 2000).