Fight outcome briefly affects the reproductive fitness of male crickets

Abstract

Sexual selection allows male individuals to adopt different evolutionary strategies in mating system. In this study, we determined whether dominance affected reproductive fitness of male crickets Velarifictorus aspersus during both pre-copulatory and post-copulatory selection when we excluded male-male competition. The results showed that females mated more often with male winners only during the first 2 h after a fight when male winners were more likely to produce courtship songs than losers. However, females did not retain the attached spermatophores of male winners longer than those of male losers, and the fecundity and fertilization success also did not differ significantly between females mated different times with male winners and losers. Instead, the fertilization success was positively correlated with male body weight. These results suggest that a recent wining experience increases reproductive fitness of males during pre-copulatory selection, but females may prefer larger males rather than winners during post-copulatory selection. The incoordination between pre- and post-copulatory selection may allow males to adopt different evolutionary strategies in mating system.