Direct detection of male quality can facilitate the evolution of female choosiness and indicators of good genes: Evolution across a continuum of indicator mechanisms

Citations Over TimeTop 13% of 2018 papers

Abstract

The evolution of mating displays as indicators of male quality has been the subject of extensive theoretical and empirical research for over four decades. Research has also addressed the evolution of female mate choice favoring such indicators. Yet, much debate still exists about whether displays can evolve through the indirect benefits of female mate choice. Here, we use a population genetic model to investigate how the extent to which females can directly detect male quality influences the evolution of female choosiness and male displays. We use a continuum framework that incorporates indicator mechanisms that are traditionally modeled separately. Counter to intuition, we find that intermediate levels of direct detection of male quality can facilitate, rather than impede, the evolution of female choosiness and male displays in broad regions of this continuum. We examine how this evolution is driven by selective forces on genetic quality and on the display, and find that direct detection of male quality results in stronger indirect selection favoring female choosiness. Our results imply that displays maybe more likely to evolve when female choosiness has already evolved to discriminate perceptible forms of male quality. They also highlight the importance of considering general female choosiness, as well as preference, in studies of "good genes."

Related Papers

• → FEMALE CHOICE AND SEXUAL SELECTION OF MALE WING MELANIN PATTERN INPIERIS OCCIDENTALIS(LEPIDOPTERA)(1989)67 cited
• → EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION SHOWSDROSOPHILA MELANOGASTERRESISTANCE TO A MICROSPORIDIAN PATHOGEN HAS FITNESS COSTS(2008)66 cited
• → A genetic analysis of some components of reproductive isolation between two closely related species,(1997)31 cited
• → Parasites, male–male competition and female mate choice in the sand goby(2002)5 cited
• → The evolution of embryonic patterning mechanisms in animals(2000)28 cited