Sex-specific repeatabilities and effects of relatedness and mating status on copulation duration in an acridid grasshopper.

ABSTRACT: In species with direct sperm transfer, copulation duration is a crucial trait that may affect male and female reproductive success and that may vary with the quality of the mating partner. Furthermore, traits such as copulation duration represent the outcome of behavioral interactions between the sexes, for which it is important-but often difficult-to determine which sex is in phenotypic control. Using a double-mating protocol, we compared copulation durations between (1) virgin and nonvirgin and (2) sibling and nonsibling mating pairs in rufous grasshoppers Gomphocerippus rufus. Nonvirgin copulations took on average approximately 30% longer than virgin copulations, whereas relatedness of mating partners was not a significant predictor of copulation duration. Longer nonvirgin copula

SUBMITTER: Haneke-Reinders M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5433977 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature