Temperature can reverse sexual conflict, facilitating population growth.

ABSTRACT: Sexual conflict frequently gives rise to adaptations that increase male reproductive success at the expense of harming females ("male harm") and decreasing population growth. Studying the ecology of male harm is paramount to understand how sexual conflict unfolds in nature, and its consequences for populations viability. Here, we used seed beetles (Callosobruchus maculatus), a species where males harm females via both harassment and traumatic male insemination, to study whether temperature (24, 28, or 32 °C) can modulate male harm. We disentangled temperature effects on male harm via pre- and postcopulatory mechanisms ("harassment and mating") vs. precopulatory mechanisms (i.e., "harassment" only; ablated males). These treatments were applied under different levels of sexual conflic

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Roa R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12492134 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature