Condition, not eyespan, predicts contest outcome in female stalk-eyed flies, Teleopsis dalmanni.

ABSTRACT: In contests among males, body condition is often the key determinant of a successful outcome, with fighting ability signaled by so-called armaments, that is, exaggerated, condition-dependent traits. However, it is not known whether condition and exaggerated traits function in the same way in females. Here, we manipulated adult condition by varying larval nutrition in the stalk-eyed fly, Teleopsis dalmanni, a species in which eyespan is exaggerated in both sexes, and we measured the outcome of contests between females of similar or different body condition and relative eyespan. We found that females in higher condition, with both larger bodies and eyespan, won a higher proportion of encounters when competing against rivals of lower condition. However, when females were of equal condition, n

SUBMITTER: Bath E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4485964 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature