Data from: Evolution of female ornamentation in dance flies: valuable gifts are worth dressing up for
Data files
Oct 21, 2025 version files 30.09 KB
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BayesTraits-code.txt
817 B
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emp_binary.txt
1.34 KB
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empid_COI_CAD.tree
3.22 KB
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empid-code.R
12.42 KB
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empid-data.csv
3.17 KB
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emptree-BT.trees
4.67 KB
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README.md
4.46 KB
Abstract
Elaborate female ornaments are rare in nature. One explanation for this is that female investment in ornamentation may take away crucial resources from other costly life history traits, such as fecundity, for which there is likely to be a higher fitness return. However, this trade-off between ornaments and fecundity may be less severe in species where the males offer the female an edible nuptial gift during mating. The nutrition gained from mating may make attracting mates with elaborate ornaments more cost-effective for the female.
We investigated this link in dance flies in which there is large variation in nuptial gifts, as well as female ornaments. The dataset includes categorical values of the level female ornamentation per species, based on inspected museum specimens, as well as the categorical level of nuptial gift value based on previously published dance fly literature. The dataset also includes a COI/CAD-based phylogenetic tree of all the dance fly species included in the study, as well as the R script for the analyses.
Our phylogenetic analysis showed that nuptial gift value is positively associated with the evolution of female ornaments. We found that species which lack nuptial gifts have no ornaments, and high levels of female ornamentation has evolved most frequently in species with a reliable access to an edible nuptial gift with each mating. Our results also suggest that female ornaments have most likely evolved following the evolution of nuptial gifts. We argue that the added benefits from each mating have helped the females to overcome the costs associated with the development and maintenance of ornaments.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.mpg4f4rd5
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset is a part of the manuscript “Evolution of female ornamentation in dance flies: valuable gifts are worth dressing up for”. The species-level data is collected in 2022-2024 from previously published literature (nuptial gift data) and inspection of museum specimens.
Files and variables
File: empid-data.csv
Description: Main data file
Variables
- Species: Dance fly species
- DetailedGiftData: A binary category if the species in question had several published observations or several individuals observed about their use/lack of nuptial gifts.
- GiftScore: Categorical classes assigned for the average value of nuptial gift in the species. 1 = mating does not involve a nuptial gift, 2 = mating can happen with or without a nuptial gift, 3 = mating always involves a nuptial gift, but it may be inedible, 4 = mating involves an edible nuptial gift, and 5 = mating involves a particularly large edible nuptial gift.
- GiftBin: Binary value for presence/absence of nuptial gift.
- Gift3: Alternative categorical classes for nuptial gift value. 1 is the same as in GiftScore, 2 includes GiftScore values 2-3 combined, 3 includes GiftScore values 4-5 combined.
- Scales: Original scoring for the level of pinnate scaling in the legs of the female. The femur and tibia of each leg pair were scored accordingly: 0 = no pinnate scales; 1 = very small pinnate scales; 2 = medium pinnate scales, slightly shorter than the width of that leg segment; 3 = large pinnate scales, same length or longer than the width of the leg segment. The potential combined maximum pinnate score for a given species was 18 (the maximum score of 32 segments3 legs).
- Wingcolor: Categorical classes assigned for the level of sexual dimorphism in the female wing color. 0 = no differences in wing color between male and female; 1 = female wing is slightly darker than male wing, 2 = female wing is clearly darker than male wing, and 3 = female wing has a large black pattern compared to the male wing.
- Wingshape: Categorical classes assigned for the level of sexual dimorphism in the female wing shape. 0 = no differences in wing shape between male and female; 1 = female wing is slightly wider than male wing, 2 = female wing is clearly wider than male wing, and 3 = female wing is wider in an exaggerated manner compared to the male wing.
- Sacs: Categorical classes assigned for the presence of inflatable abdominal sacs in the female. 0 = regular abdominal membrane, 1 = unusual folds or protrusions in the abdominal membrane, and 2 = confirmed inflatable sacs.
- SacsBin: Binary value for presence/absence of abdominal sacs.
- WingBin: Binary value for presence/absence of any ornamentation in the female wings.
- OrnamentBin: Binary value for presence/absence of any ornaments in the female.
- OrnamentScore: ombined value of all ornamental traits calculated using the following formula (PS = pinnate scale score, WC = wing color score, WS = wing shape score, AS = abdominal sac score): (PS/15 + [WC+WS]/6 + AS/2)/3
File: empid_COI_CAD.tree
Description: Phylogenetic tree based on available COI and CAD sequences for the dance fly species used in the study, as well as the outgroup.
File: empid-code.R
Description: R script file for the main analyses.
File: BayesTraits-code.txt
Description: Code used for the BayesTraits program for the evolutionary transition analysis.
File: emptree-BT.trees
Description: Trimmed phylogenetic tree used in the BayesTraits analysis.
File: emp_binary.txt
Description: Binary trait file for the BayesTraits analysis, with only presence/absence of nuptial gifts and female ornaments for each dance fly species.
Code/software
Software: R version 4.5.0 (2025-04-11)
attached base packages:
stats graphics grDevices utils datasets methods base
other attached packages:
loo_2.8.0 reshape2_1.4.4 lubridate_1.9.4 forcats_1.0.0 stringr_1.5.1 dplyr_1.1.4 purrr_1.0.4 readr_2.1.5 tidyr_1.3.1 tibble_3.2.1 ggplot2_3.5.2 tidyverse_2.0.0 phytools_2.4-4 maps_3.4.2.1 ape_5.8-1 brms_2.22.0 Rcpp_1.0.14
Software: BayesTraits V4.1.3 (Sep 27 2024)