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dc.contributor.authorTeuschl, Y
dc.contributor.authorHosken, DJ
dc.contributor.authorBlanckenhorn, WU
dc.date.accessioned2016-12-09T15:25:57Z
dc.date.issued2007-10-17
dc.description.abstractBACKGROUND: In a number of species males damage females during copulation, but the reasons for this remain unclear. It may be that males are trying to manipulate female mating behaviour or their life histories. Alternatively, damage may be a side-effect of male-male competition. In the black scavenger or dung fly Sepsis cynipsea (Diptera: Sepsidae) mating reduces female survival, apparently because males wound females during copulation. However, this damage does not seem to relate to attempted manipulation of female reproduction by males. Here we tested the hypothesis that harming females during mating is an incidental by-product of characters favoured during pre-copulatory male-male competition. We assessed whether males and their sons vary genetically in their ability to obtain matings and harm females, and whether more successful males were also more damaging. We did this by ranking males' mating success in paired competitions across several females whose longevity under starvation was subsequently measured. RESULTS: As previously reported, our results show mating is costly for female S. cynipsea. However, variance in female longevity was not explained by male identity, family, body size, number of previous copulations, or copulation duration. Nevertheless, there was a positive correlation between the harm fathers inflicted on their mates (affecting female longevity) and the harm sons inflicted on theirs. Additionally, family identity significantly influenced male copulation success. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate a heritable component of some yet unspecified male trait(s) that influence harm and mating success. However, there was no relationship between copulation success of fathers or sons and the mean longevity of their mates. We therefore found no support for harm being a side effect of traits favoured in pre-copulatory male-male competition.en_GB
dc.description.sponsorshipWe thank the Swiss National Fund for financing this project. DJH also thanks the European Social Fund and NERC for support. Thanks also to T. Morrow, M. Edvardsson, T. Tregenza, N. Wedell, M. Taylor, O. Martin and F. Champion de Crespigny for kindly commenting on previous versions of this manuscript.en_GB
dc.identifier.citationVol. 7, article 194en_GB
dc.identifier.doi10.1186/1471-2148-7-194
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10871/24802
dc.language.isoenen_GB
dc.publisherBioMed Centralen_GB
dc.relation.urlhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17941983en_GB
dc.rights© Teuschl et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2007. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.en_GB
dc.subjectAnimalsen_GB
dc.subjectCompetitive Behavioren_GB
dc.subjectDipteraen_GB
dc.subjectFemaleen_GB
dc.subjectGenotypeen_GB
dc.subjectLongevityen_GB
dc.subjectMaleen_GB
dc.subjectReproductionen_GB
dc.subjectSex Characteristicsen_GB
dc.subjectSexual Behavior, Animalen_GB
dc.subjectSurvival Rateen_GB
dc.titleIs reduced female survival after mating a by-product of male-male competition in the dung fly Sepsis cynipsea?en_GB
dc.typeArticleen_GB
dc.date.available2016-12-09T15:25:57Z
exeter.place-of-publicationEnglanden_GB
dc.descriptionThis is the final version of the article. Available from BioMed Central via the DOI in this record.en_GB
dc.identifier.journalBMC Evolutionary Biologyen_GB


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