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Sexual selection on receptor organ traits: Younger females attract males with longer antennae

journal contribution
posted on 2017-06-01, 00:00 authored by T L Johnson, Matthew SymondsMatthew Symonds, M A Elgar
Sexual selection theory predicts that female choice may favour the evolution of elaborate male signals. Darwin also suggested that sexual selection can favour elaborate receiver structures in order to better detect sexual signals, an idea that has been largely ignored.We evaluated this unorthodox perspective by documenting the antennal lengths of male Uraba lugensWalker (Lepidoptera: Nolidae) moths that were attracted to experimentally manipulated emissions of female sex pheromone. Either one or two females were placed in field traps for the duration of their adult lives in order to create differences in the quantity of pheromone emissions from the traps. The mean antennal length of males attracted to field traps baited with a single female was longer than that of males attracted to traps baited with two females, a pattern consistent with Darwin’s prediction assuming the latter emits higher pheromone concentrations. Furthermore, younger females attracted males with longer antennae, which may reflect agespecific changes in pheromone emission. These field experiments provide the first direct evidence of an unappreciated role for sexual selection in the evolution of sexual dimorphism in moth antennae and raise the intriguing possibility that females select males with longer antennae through strategic emission of pheromones.

History

Journal

Science of Nature

Volume

104

Issue

5-6

ISSN

0028-1042

eISSN

1432-1904

Publication classification

C Journal article; C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2017, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg