Toward an understanding of the chemical ecology of alternative reproductive tactics in the bulb mite (Rhizoglyphus robini).

ABSTRACT:

Background

Under strong sexual selection, certain species evolve distinct intrasexual, alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs). In many cases, ARTs can be viewed as environmentally-cued threshold traits, such that ARTs coexist if their relative fitness alternates over the environmental cue gradient. Surprisingly, the chemical ecology of ARTs has been underexplored in this context. To our knowledge, no prior study has directly quantified pheromone production for ARTs in a male-polymorphic species. Here, we used the bulb mite-in which males are either armed fighters that kill conspecifics, or unarmed scramblers (which have occasionally been observed to induce mating behavior in other males)-as a model system to gain insight into the role of pheromones in the evolutionary maintenance

SUBMITTER: Zeeman AN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8742560 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature