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Full-Text Articles in Animal Sciences
Field Evidence Challenges The Often-Presumed Relationship Between Early Male Maturation And Female-Biased Sexual Size Dimorphism, Marie Claire Chelini, Eileen Hebets
Field Evidence Challenges The Often-Presumed Relationship Between Early Male Maturation And Female-Biased Sexual Size Dimorphism, Marie Claire Chelini, Eileen Hebets
Eileen Hebets Publications
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 …
Polyandry In The Absence Of Fitness Benefits In A Species With Female-Biased Sexual Size Dimorphism, Marie Claire Chelini, Eileen A. Hebets
Polyandry In The Absence Of Fitness Benefits In A Species With Female-Biased Sexual Size Dimorphism, Marie Claire Chelini, Eileen A. Hebets
Eileen Hebets Publications
Most studies exploring the evolution of female mating systems focus on species in which females are either monandric (mate with a single male) or highly polyandric (mate with multiple males), but less is understood about variation in mating decisions within a species. How and why do females of a single species decide whether or not to copulate with additional mates? In this study we attempt to answer this question in the highly dimorphic crab spider, Mecaphesa celer, whose females may be either monandric or polyandric. We tested three hypotheses: (1) a female’s decision to remate is based on sequential mate …