Abstract
Mate attractiveness is known to sometimes influence female reproductive investment (i.e. differential allocation) and the sex ratio of her offspring (i.e. sex allocation). Males of the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum rub the lateral edges of the females’ elytra with their tarsi during copulation. This behavior is important for paternity success when females have mated with two males. We manipulated female perception of the leg rubbing behavior by tarsal ablation and tested whether this behavior is also favored through differential allocation and whether it affects sex allocation. We found some support for an increase in female oviposition rate in response to intensive leg rubbing but failed to find any support for an effect on sex allocation. The overall sex ratio of offspring was slightly male biased but females did not appear to regulate the sex ratio of their offspring.
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Edvardsson, M., Arnqvist, G. The Effects of Copulatory Courtship on Differential Allocation in the Red Flour Beetle Tribolium castaneum. J Insect Behav 18, 313–322 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-005-3692-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-005-3692-4