Field evidence challenges the often-presumed relationship between early male maturation and female-biased sexual size dimorphism.

ABSTRACT: Female-biased sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is often considered an epiphenomenon of selection for the increased mating opportunities provided by early male maturation (i.e., protandry). Empirical evidence of the adaptive significance of protandry remains nonetheless fairly scarce. We use field data collected throughout the reproductive season of an SSD crab spider, Mecaphesa celer, to test two hypotheses: Protandry provides fitness benefits to males, leading to female-biased SSD, or protandry is an indirect consequence of selection for small male size/large female size. Using field-collected data, we modeled the probability of mating success for females and males according to their timing of maturation. We found that males matured earlier than females and the proportion of vir

SUBMITTER: Chelini MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5696407 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature