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"Density-dependent male mating harassment, female resistance and male mimicry"
Thomas P. Gosden and Erik I. Svensson


male blue-tailed damselfly matting with his doppelganger

A male mating with his female doppelganger (photo: Erik Svensson) 

Females in the blue-tailed damselfly (Ischnura elegans) occur in three different inherited color forms: green, red, and blue, with the blue form looking confusingly similar to males, perhaps to avoid repeated excessive sexual harassment. By dusting the males with a fluorescent powder, the authors monitored both the intensity of male mating harassment and the number of matings of the three female forms. The avoidance through male mimicry only seems to benefit the females when their “more attractive” sisters are at higher densities.

Press Release

Snapshot of Speciation
Study catches two bird populations as they split into separate species

A new study finds that a change in a single gene has sent two closely related bird populations on their way to becoming two distinct species. The study, published in the August issue of The American Naturalist, is one of only a few to investigate the specific genetic changes that drive two populations toward speciation.

Parasites May Help Keep Sex On Top

What’s so great about sex? From an evolutionary perspective, the answer is not as obvious as one might think. An article published in the July issue of The American Naturalist suggests that sex may have evolved in part as a defense against parasites.

Michael J. Wade to Receive 2009 Sewall Wright Award

Harvard Biologist Jonathan Losos to Receive 2009 E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award

In the News

Featured in Scientific American
"Are Parasites To Thank for Sex?" July 8, 2009
The Maintenance of Sex, Clonal Dynamics, and Host-Parasite Coevolution in a Mixed Population of Sexual and Asexual Snails
Jukka Jokela, Mark F. Dybdahl, and Curtis M. Lively
A study in the journal The American Naturalist implies that parasites helped drive the development of sex, because the shuffling of genes gives sex-produced progeny an advantage over asexual genetic clones. Cynthia Graber reports.

Featured in ScienceNOW
"On the Road to a New Species" June 15, 2009
Difference in Plumage Color Used in Species Recognition between Incipient Species Is Linked to a Single Amino Acid Substitution in the Melanocortin‐1 Receptor
J. Albert C. Uy, Robert G. Moyle, Christopher E. Filardi, and Zachary A. Cheviron, Associate Editor: Ben C. Sheldon, Editor: Monica A. Geber
Next, the researchers evaluated whether this color change might make any difference to the birds. They put stuffed birds of either color into the territories of live flycatchers. Flycatchers are not bothered by most foreign birds, but they will attack potential rivals of the same species. Black bird decoys drew angry responses from black birds but little reaction from brown-belly birds and vice versa, Uy and his colleagues report in the August issue of The American Naturalist.

June 2008

Volume 171, Number 6
Am Nat 2008. Vol. 171, pp. E206–E212
© 2008 by The University of Chicago.
0003-0147/2008/17106-42898$15.00
DOI: 10.1086/587532
Natural History Note

Orchid Sexual Deceit Provokes Ejaculation

A. C. Gaskett,1,*

C. G. Winnick,1,2,† and

M. E. Herberstein1,‡

1. Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia;

2. Department of Physiology, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia

Sexually deceptive orchids lure pollinators by mimicking female insects. Male insects fooled into gripping or copulating with orchids unwittingly transfer the pollinia. The effect of deception on pollinators has been considered negligible, but we show that pollinators may suffer considerable costs. Insects pollinating Australian tongue orchids (Cryptostylis species) frequently ejaculate and waste copious sperm. The costs of sperm wastage could select for pollinator avoidance of orchids, thereby driving and maintaining sexual deception via antagonistic coevolution or an arms race between pollinator learning and escalating orchid mimicry. However, we also show that orchid species provoking such extreme pollinator behavior have the highest pollination success. How can deception persist, given the costs to pollinators? Sexually‐deceptive‐orchid pollinators are almost exclusively solitary and haplodiploid species. Therefore, female insects deprived of matings by orchid deception could still produce male offspring, which may even enhance orchid pollination.

Submitted October 6, 2007; Accepted January 30, 2008; Electronically published April 11, 2008

Keywords:

orchid pollination, deception, ejaculation, arms race, haplodiploidy.

Natural History Editor: Henry M. Wilbur

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