Mating status-dependent "choice" in competitive and noncompetitive arenas.

ABSTRACT: To maximize their reproductive fitness, females of many polyandrous species should display mating status-dependent choice, where they mate relatively indiscriminately once to ensure reproductive output, and then become choosy and mate preferentially with higher-quality males. Despite this potential contrast in choosiness, most mate choice experiments use virgin females. Here, using a panel of 20 isofemale strains that originated from wild-caught flies, we allowed virgin and non-virgin Drosophila melanogaster females to choose among males from the same panel of strains. We used single-male latency trials and a series of male competition trials to help disentangle female "choices" from male-male competitive effects. Most virgin females mated within 2 h of males being introduced, compa

SUBMITTER: Dugand RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12457708 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul-Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature