Phenology of scramble polygyny in a wild population of chrysomelid beetles: the opportunity for and the strength of sexual selection [corrected].

ABSTRACT: Recent debate has highlighted the importance of estimating both the strength of sexual selection on phenotypic traits, and the opportunity for sexual selection. We describe seasonal fluctuations in mating dynamics of Leptinotarsa undecimlineata (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). We compared several estimates of the opportunity for, and the strength of, sexual selection and male precopulatory competition over the reproductive season. First, using a null model, we suggest that the ratio between observed values of the opportunity for sexual selections and their expected value under random mating results in unbiased estimates of the actual nonrandom mating behavior of the population. Second, we found that estimates for the whole reproductive season often misrepresent the actual value at any given ti

SUBMITTER: Baena ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3382595 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature