Mating status-dependent 'choice' in competitive and non-competitive arenas
Data files
Jul 21, 2025 version files 191.30 KB
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EAV.csv
15.12 KB
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Fitness.csv
50.11 KB
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matingsucess.csv
123.07 KB
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README.md
3 KB
Abstract
To maximize their reproductive fitness, females of many polyandrous species should display mating status-dependent choice, where they mate relatively indiscriminately once to ensure reproductive output, and then become choosy and mate preferentially with higher-quality males. Despite this potential contrast in choosiness, most mate choice experiments use virgin females. Here, we tested whether virgin and non-virgin females differ in their choosiness, and then test whether their choices are likely to be adaptive. To do so, we measured the latency to mate and the competitive mating success of male flies from 20 isofemale strains (i.e., males that come from 20 different genetic backgrounds). We hypothesized that male mating success would vary more between strains when non-virgin females were choosing (captured by 'among-M-strain' variance), consistent with the theory that virgin females mate reltively indistriminately. We then performed a series of strain crosses and measured the egg-to-adult viability (number of adults that emerged from N eggs) and competitive fitness (numbers of wild-type [focal flies] versus brown-eyed [competitor flies] flies emerging) of flies emerging from these crosses. These assays test how strains and/or strain-combinations vary in their viability and fitness, and thus allow us to determine whether female choices are adaptive.
Most virgin females mated within two hours of males being introduced, compared with fewer than half of non-virgin females mating over the same period. However, despite mating more rapidly, virgin females did not mate indiscriminately, and their ‘choices’ strongly aligned with those of previously mated females across both the single-male latency and male-male competition trials. Our results challenge the idea that virgin females mate relatively indiscriminately and show that female choice may be more stable than is generally appreciated.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnxw
Description of the data and file structure
Data collected for competitive and non-competitive mating success, egg-to-adult viability, and fitness, for 20 isofemale strains of flies.
Files and variables
File: EAV.csv
Description: Egg-to-adult viability data. Strains were crosses in a full factorial design (4 strains per randomised block), and flies from the crosses mated and laid eggs. The eggs and emerging adults were counted.
Variables
- block: randomised block (5 blocks, each with 4 isofemale strains)
- Fstrain: the isofemale strain from which the female was derived
- Mstrain: the isofemale strain from which the male was derived
- cross: whether flies used in the cross were from the same isofemale strain (within) or from different strains (between)
- eggs: the number of eggs laid
- adults: the number of adults that emerged
- eav: egg-to-adult viability, scored as ln((adults+1)/(eggs-adults+1))
File: Fitness.csv
Description: Competitive fitness data. Male and female focal flies [WT] were competed against a brown-eyed fly [BE] of their own sex for access to a brown-eyed fly of the opposite sex, and the numbers of WT and BE offspring that emerged were recorded. Focal flies were produced from within- and between-strain crosses, which were performed as for egg-to-adult viability.
Variables
- block: randomised block (5 blocks, each with 4 isofemale strains)
- Fstrain: the isofemale strain from which the female was derived
- Mstrain: the isofemale strain from which the male was derived
- sex: the sex of the wild-type (experimental) fly used in fitness assay
- cross: whether the fly used in the fitness assay was derived from a within-strain (within) or between-strain (between) cross
- BE: the number of brown-eyed offspring emerging from the vial
- WT: the number of wild-type offspring emerging from the vial
- fitness: fitness, scored as ln((WT+1)/(BE+1))
File: matingsucess.csv
Description: The mating outcome (success: 1, failure: 0) for all trials.
Variables
- block: randomised block (5 blocks, each with 4 isofemale strains)
- Fstrain: the isofemale strain from which the female was derived
- Mstrain: the isofemale strain from which the male was derived
- vial: in competitive trials, there were 4 males per vial; this column has the mating trial vial that links males that were used in the same trial
- colour: in competitive trials, males were dyed different colours to differentiate them; this column has the colour that a male was dyed in the competitive trials
- c.nc: whether the context was competitive (c: 4 males present) or non-competitive (nc: 1 male present)
- v.nv: whether the context had virgin (v) or non-virgin (nv) females
- win: whether a male was successful (1) or unsuccessful (0) at mating at the relevant cut-off time