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University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Series

2018

Mate choice

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Biology

A Probable Case Of Incipient Speciation In Schizocosa Wolf Spiders Driven By Allochrony, Habitat Use, And Female Mate Choice, R. Tucker Gilman, Kasey Fowler-Finn, Eileen A. Hebets Jun 2018

A Probable Case Of Incipient Speciation In Schizocosa Wolf Spiders Driven By Allochrony, Habitat Use, And Female Mate Choice, R. Tucker Gilman, Kasey Fowler-Finn, Eileen A. Hebets

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

There is growing evidence that speciation can occur between populations that are not geographically isolated. The emergence of assortative mating is believed to be critical to this process, but how assortative mating arises in diverging populations is poorly understood. The wolf spider genus Schizocosa has become a model system for studying mechanisms of assortative mating. We conducted a series of experiments to identify the factors that control mate-pair formation in a Schizocosa population that includes both ornamented and nonornamented males. We show that the population also includes two previously unrecognized female phenotypes. One female phenotype mates mostly or exclusively with …


Reproductive Promiscuity In The Variegated Fairy-Wren: An Alternative Reproductive Strategy In The Absence Of Helpers?, Allison E. Johnson, Stephen Pruett-Jones Jan 2018

Reproductive Promiscuity In The Variegated Fairy-Wren: An Alternative Reproductive Strategy In The Absence Of Helpers?, Allison E. Johnson, Stephen Pruett-Jones

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Cooperative breeding, in which auxiliary group members help rear related, but nondescendent young, is often explained by kin selection. Reproductive monogamy is predicted in cooperatively breeding systems, as monogamy increases intragroup relatedness and maximizes auxiliary inclusive fitness. While monogamy is observed across many systems, including eusocial insects and cooperatively breeding mammals, some cooperatively breeding birds exhibit high rates of extrapair paternity. Here we quantify paternity and examine the role of auxiliaries on extrapair paternity in the highly cooperative variegated fairy-wren, Malurus lamberti, a species with both male and female auxiliaries. Extrapair paternity occurred in 55.4% of nests, and 39.8% …