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The effect of female arrivals on mate monopolization in the yellow dung fly

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Abstract

The degree of resource monopolization relates to the distribution of resources in space and time. In general, monopolization is predicted to be high when resources (food or mates) are clumped in space, dispersed in time, and predictable in space or time. Using the yellow dung fly, Scathophaga stercoraria (Diptera: Scathophagidae), we qualitatively tested a general model that predicts the distribution of mating success among competing males based on the temporal pattern of female arrivals relative to mating time and a ranking of males in priority of access to the resource (here by body size). In a laboratory experiment approximating the natural mating situation, a constant number of males of various sizes were allowed to compete for females. As predicted, mate monopolization decreased as the temporal clumping of female arrivals increased, mediated by either a decrease in the mean or an increase in the variance of female inter-arrival times, which were manipulated independently. Males appeared to adjust their behavior to variation in female arrivals in a manner consistent with the marginal value theory of Parker and associates: forcible take-overs of females were rarer, and copula durations shorter, when females arrived regularly at short intervals. Therefore, a complex interaction of variation in intrinsic characteristics affecting male resource holding potential, mating time and stochastic, extrinsic variables increasing temporal clumping of mates generally reduces the variance in mating success among competing males and thus ultimately the opportunity and intensity of sexual selection on traits influencing male success. This theory extends operational sex ratio theory at the mechanistic, behavioral level.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Swiss National Fund for financial support. This experiment was performed by students of the behavioral biology course 2001 at the University of Zürich.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoologisches Museum, Universität Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zürich, Switzerland

    Wolf U. Blanckenhorn, Jérôme Frei & Maurus Birrer

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  1. Wolf U. Blanckenhorn
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  2. Jérôme Frei
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  3. Maurus Birrer
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Correspondence to Wolf U. Blanckenhorn.

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Communicated by L. Simmons

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Blanckenhorn, W.U., Frei, J. & Birrer, M. The effect of female arrivals on mate monopolization in the yellow dung fly. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 54, 65–70 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0594-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0594-3

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