Courtship & Mating Reproduction in Insects
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Reproduction Courtship & Mating in Insects • How do the sexes find each other? – Light – Swarming (male only/ female only) – Leks (male aggregations) • Defend territory against males • Court arriving females – Pheromones What do they do once they find each other? Courtship • Close range intersexual behavior that induces sexual receptivity before and during mating. • Allows mate choice among and within species. 1 Types of Courtship • Visual displays Nuptial Gifts • Ritualized movements • 3 forms • Sound production – Cannibalization of males • Tactile stimulation – Glandular product • Nuptial gifts – Nuptial gift • Prey • Salt, nutrients Evolution of nuptial feeding Sexual Cannibalization • Female advantages • Rather extreme – Nutritional benefit • Male actually does not – Mate choice (mate with good provider) willingly give himself • Male advantages up… – Helping provision/produce his offspring – Where would its potential – Female returns sperm while feeding rather than reproductive benefit be? mating with someone else • Do females have • Male costs increased reproductive – Capturing food costs energy and incurs predation success? risk – Prey can be stolen and used by another male. 2 Glandular gifts Nuptial gifts • Often part of the spermatophore (sperm transfer unit) – Occupy female while sperm is being transferred – Parental investment by male • Generally a food item (usually prey) • Also regurgitations (some flies) • But beware the Cubic Zirconia, ladies Sexual selection Types of sexual selection • Intrasexual selection – Contest competition – Scramble competition – Sperm competition • Intersexual selection • Occurs when a trait evolves that is costly for survival, but… – Male has exaggerated trait • Confers greater mating success – Females choose males depending on trait value • May explain sexual dimorphism – Sex roles reversed if males perform more parental – Males larger than females: rare in insects care than females – Exaggerated traits in males 3 Contest competition Scramble competition • Frequent fights over • Scramble to be first to mate territory or access to • Little monopolization of females females • Males monopolize • No consistent body size effect females – Small size may be better for • Often exaggerated maneuverability traits in male – Large size may have advantages if it relates to speed Mixed strategy Copulation and sexual with dung beetles selection • Contest: larged- • Copulation often horned males prolonged in insects – Female may try to break monopolize tunnels off sooner if male is less in which females live desirable – Male may try to prolong • Scramble: Small- copulation to maximize horned males sneak fertilization • Male accessory gland around large males secretion may… or dig a side tunnel. – Repress female receptivity to mating by others – Stimulate female oviposition 4 Sperm competition Sperm competition • What really counts • Last-in-first-out systems – Spermatophore closest – Male: number of to oviduct most offspring fathered successful – Female: highest – Males push previous sperm higher into quality mates spermatheca – Intersexual conflict • Sperm removal may occur over – Scoop out previous which sperm fertilize sperm eggs – Flush out previous sperm. Dragonflies 5 Outcomes of sexual selection Variation in female reproductive tract • Can prevent interspecies mating • Rapid evolution of genitalia • Can also result from intersexual conflict over • High variation within and among species, control of sperm more than needed for copulation Morphological evolution in males Results of sexual selection • Morphological evolution in males often much more rapid than in females • Further exaggeration of trait until balance – Especially characters related to secondary sexual traits between cost and benefit established – Females of different species often morphologically • May result in new species. indistinguishable. e.g. Rheumatobates water striders 6 What’s the result of all of What’s the result of all of these shenanigans? these shenanigans? • Reproduction! • Egg-laying • Successful fertilization accomplished through will result in fertilized ovipositor egg and egg-laying: – Formed from abdominal oviparity. appendages (plesiomorphic), or – Formed from posterior segments (substitutional) Ovipositor Insect Reproduction • Variously modified • Means of producing to insert eggs into offspring appropriate – Oviparity: egg-laying substrate. initiates egg development. – Ovoviviparity – Viviparity 7 Insect Reproduction Insect Reproduction • Means of producing • Means of producing offspring offspring – Oviparity – Oviparity – Ovoviviparity – Ovoviviparity – Viviparity • Allows offspring to • Pseudoplacental – Egg nourished in take advantage of reproductive tract highly ephemeral • Hemocoelous resource – Larvae free in hemocoel • Adenotrophic – Milk glands, larva pupates immediately on deposition. OR DISPENSE WITH THE SHENANIGANS Types of parthenogenesis • Parthenogenesis • Production of females from unfertilized eggs: • Females produce Thelytokous parthenogenesis viable unfertilized – Can occur via automixis: meiosis occurs, two eggs products of meiosis refuse to form diploid female. – Can occur via apomixis: no meiosis, diploid egg is • Found in nearly all produced via mitosis. insect orders • Production of males from unfertilized eggs: Arrhenotokous parthenogensis – Always produced via automixis 8 Types of parthenogenesis Parthenogenesis in Hymenoptera • Haplodiploidy • Obligatory • Females (queen & workers) • Facultative produced from fertilized eggs or (occasionally) from – Seasonal in aphids automictic thelytokous – Asexual reproduction parthenogenesis: diploid during summer • Male drones always – Sexual reproduction produced from unfertilized in spring and fall eggs through arrhenotokous parthenogensis: haploid. Hermaphroditism • What is it? • Exceedingly rare in insects (given that every other bizarre genetic system exists). • Only one genus of scale insect: Icerya 9 .