Variation in the benefits of multiple mating on female fertility in wild stalk-eyed flies.

ABSTRACT: Polyandry, female mating with multiple males, is widespread across many taxa and almost ubiquitous in insects. This conflicts with the traditional idea that females are constrained by their comparatively large investment in each offspring, and so should only need to mate once or a few times. Females may need to mate multiply to gain sufficient sperm supplies to maintain their fertility, especially in species in which male promiscuity results in division of their ejaculate among many females. Here, we take a novel approach, utilizing wild-caught individuals to explore how natural variation among females and males influences fertility gains for females. We studied this in the Malaysian stalk-eyed fly species Teleopsis dalmanni. After an additional mating, females benefit from greatly

SUBMITTER: Meade L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5723596 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature