Masako Katsuki

Effects of temperature on mating duration, sperm transfer and remating frequency in Callosobruchus chinensis

Insect body temperature is usually determined by ambient temperature. Therefore, most biochemical and physiological processes underlying behavioural patterns are temperature dependent. Mating duration is also dependent on temperature, and therefore temperature should influence on sperm transfer and female remating frequency. In the adzuki bean beetle, Callosobruchus chinensis, we found negative relationships between ambient temperature and mating duration, sperm transfer and sperm transfer duration. Female remating frequency at lower temperature (17 degrees C) was lower than at other temperatures (25 degrees C and 33 degrees C). The physiological and behavioural significance of these results is discussed. The number of ejaculated sperm was significantly lower at 33 degrees C than at 17 degrees C; the effect of temperature on sperm transfer is discussed in relation to the intensity of female refusal behaviour directed against males.

Sexual conflict over mating in Gnatocerus cornutus? Females prefer lovers not fighters

Female mate choice and male–male competition are the typical mechanisms of sexual selection. However, these two mechanisms do not always favour the same males. Furthermore, it has recently become clear that female choice can sometimes benefit males that reduce female fitness. So whether male–male competition and female choice favour the same or different males, and whether or not females benefit from mate choice, remain open questions. In the horned beetle, Gnatocerus cornutus, males have enlarged mandibles used to fight rivals, and larger mandibles provide a mating advantage when there is direct male–male competition for mates. However, it is not clear whether females prefer these highly competitive males. Here, we show that female choice targets male courtship rather than mandible size, and these two characters are not phenotypically or genetically correlated. Mating with attractive, highly courting males provided indirect benefits to females but only via the heritability of male attractiveness. However, mating with attractive males avoids the indirect costs to daughters that are generated by mating with competitive males. Our results suggest that male–male competition may constrain female mate choice, possibly reducing female fitness and generating sexual conflict over mating.

Intralocus sexual conflict and offspring sex ratio.

Males and females frequently have different fitness optima for shared traits, and as a result, genotypes that are high fitness as males are low fitness as females, and vice versa. When this occurs, biasing of offspring sex-ratio to reduce the production of the lower-fitness sex would be advantageous, so that for example, broods produced by high-fitness females should contain fewer sons. We tested for offspring sex-ratio biasing consistent with these predictions in broad-horned flour beetles. We found that in both wild-type beetles and populations subject to artificial selection for high- and low-fitness males, offspring sex ratios were biased in the predicted direction: low-fitness females produced an excess of sons, whereas high-fitness females produced an excess of daughters. Thus, these beetles are able to adaptively bias sex ratio and recoup indirect fitness benefits of mate choice.

Ultraviolet light-emitting diode (UV LED) trap the West Indian sweet potato weevil, Euscepes postfasciatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

The West Indian sweet potato weevil Euscepes postfasciatus (Fairmaire) is a troublesome pest insect of sweet potato that originally came from the Caribbean, but is now expanding its distribution into the Pacific Islands. Although sterile insect techniques have been used against this pest in a demonstration experiment on Kume Island [Ohno et al. (2006) Kontyu to Shizen 41:25–30], effective methods of monitoring E. postfasciatus are scarce. It is necessary to detect the weevils at an early stage of invasion in uninvaded areas, and an attractant trap can be used to achieve this. Thus, we developed an ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diode trap, invented a method for diffusing the light to attract more insects, and investigated the attractiveness of the light trap to E. postfasciatus under laboratory conditions. Our results indicate that diffused UV light has a higher potential to attract E. postfasciatus than direct UV light. Furthermore, sweet potato is an effective bait to use to capture the weevils attracted by UV light. Thus, E. postfasciatus can be trapped using diffused UV light and sweet potato bait.

Impacts of diet quality on life-history and reproductive traits in male and female armed beetle, Gnatocerus cornutus

1. The energy available for reproduction is usually limited by resource acquisition (i.e. condition). Because condition is known to be strongly affected by environmental factors, reproductive investments also vary across heterogeneous environments.

Male courtship behavior and weapon trait as indicators of indirect benefit in the bean bug, Riptortus pedestris.

Females prefer male traits that are associated with direct and/or indirect benefits to themselves. Male–male competition also drives evolution of male traits that represent competitive ability. Because female choice and male–male competition rarely act independently, exploring how these two mechanisms interact is necessary for integrative understanding of the evolution of sexually selected traits. Here, we focused on direct and indirect benefits to females from male attractiveness, courtship, and weapon characters in the armed bug Riptortus pedestris. The males use their hind legs to fight other males over territory and perform courtship displays for successful copulation. Females of R. pedestris receive no direct benefit from mating with attractive males. On the other hand, we found that male attractiveness, courtship rate, and weapon size were significantly heritable and that male attractiveness had positive genetic covariances with both courtship rate and weapon traits. Thus, females obtain indirect benefits from mating with attractive males by producing sons with high courtship success rates and high competitive ability. Moreover, it is evident that courtship rate and hind leg length act as evaluative cues of female choice. Therefore, female mate choice and male–male competition may facilitate each other in R. pedestris. This is consistent with current basic concepts of sexual selection.

Immature performance linked with exaggeration of a sexually selected trait in an armed beetle

Exaggerated traits can be costly and are often trade‐off against other characters, such as life‐history traits. Thus, the evolution of an exaggerated trait is predicted to affect male life‐history strategies. However, there has been very little experimental evidence of the impact of the evolution of sexually selected traits on life‐history traits. This study investigated whether increased investment in exaggerated traits can generate evolutionary changes in the life‐history strategy for armed males. Male flour beetles, Gnatocerus cornutus, have enlarged mandibles that are used in male–male competition, but females lack this character exaggeration completely. We subjected these weapons to 11 generations of bidirectional selection and found a correlated response in pupal survival but not in larval survival or adult longevity in the male. That is, selecting for male mandibles negatively impacted survival during the production of mandibles. There is no correlated response in the life‐history traits of the female.

Pre-copulatory sexual selection in the cigarette beetle Lasioderma serricorne

Traditional concepts of sexual selection and sexual conflict make different predictions about the costs and benefits to females of exposure to males with higher mating success. The traditional concepts of sexual selection assume that females benefit from their mate choices, whereas sexual conflict assumes that the females suffer greater costs by mating with males who have greater mating success and thus reduce their fitness. In order to understand how mate choice evolves, it is necessary to estimate the overall effect of mate choice on female fitness. However, relatively few studies have conducted that investigation. In this study, we investigated the direct and indirect effects of mating with attractive males on the fitness of females in the cigarette beetle Lasioderma serricorne. Mating with attractive males increased the number of female offspring but did not affect female longevity. Additionally, we found evidence that attractive males sire highly attractive sons. Thus, mating with an attractive male provides direct and indirect benefits but no fitness cost to female L. serricorne.

Selection on an extreme weapon in the frog-legged leaf beetle (Sagra femorata)

Biologists have been fascinated with the extreme products of sexual selection for decades. However, relatively few studies have characterized patterns of selection acting on ornaments and weapons in the wild. Here, we measure selection on a wild population of weapon‐bearing beetles (frog‐legged leaf beetles: Sagra femorata) for two consecutive breeding seasons. We consider variation in both weapon size (hind leg length) and in relative weapon size (deviations from the population average scaling relationship between hind leg length and body size), and provide evidence for directional selection on weapon size per se and stabilizing selection on a particular scaling relationship in this population. We suggest that whenever growth in body size is sensitive to external circumstance such as nutrition, then considering deviations from population‐level scaling relationships will better reflect patterns of selection relevant to evolution of the ornament or weapon than will variation in trait size per se. This is because trait‐size versus body‐size scaling relationships approximate underlying developmental reaction norms relating trait growth with body condition in these species. Heightened condition‐sensitive expression is a hallmark of the exaggerated ornaments and weapons favored by sexual selection, yet this plasticity is rarely reflected in the way we think about—and measure—selection acting on these structures in the wild.

Relationships among male sexually selected traits in the bean bug, Riptortus pedestris (Heteroptera: Alydidae)

Current concepts of sexual selection suggest that male reproductive success is determined by multiple sexual traits. As expression and production of multiple sexual traits are frequently associated with each other, positive or negative correlations among multiple sexual traits ensue. These relationships among traits associated with male reproductive success may be crucial in the evolution of male reproductive strategies. Here, we investigate phenotypic relationships among sexually selected traits in the armed bean bug Riptortus pedestris. In this insect, males with a larger body and weapon are more likely to win male–male competitions, and males with a larger weapon or higher courtship rate are more attractive to females. There was a significant positive correlation between body size and weapon size, whereas the courtship rate had significant negative correlations with body size and weapon size. Our results suggested that there was a phenotypic trade‐off between courtship rate and male morphology. In this insect, smaller males may make more effort in courtship behavior as an alternative mating tactic.