Male sexual attractiveness affects the investment of maternal resources into the eggs in peafowl (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pavo cristatus</Emphasis>) |
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| Authors: | Adeline Loyau Michel Saint Jalme Robert Mauget Gabriele Sorci |
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| Institution: | (1) Laboratoire de Parasitologie Evolutive, CNRS UMR 7103, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Bat. A, 7ème étage, 7 quai St. Bernard, Case 237, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France;(2) Conservation des Espèces, Restauration et Suivi des Populations, CNRS UMR 5173, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 57 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France;(3) Present address: BioGéoSciences, CNRS UMR 5561, Université de Bourgogne, 6 Boulevard Gabriel, 21000 Dijon, France;(4) Present address: Department of Conservation Biology, UFZ, Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig–Halle, Leipzig, Germany |
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| Abstract: | According to the differential investment hypothesis, females paired with attractive mates are expected to invest more in the
current reproduction relative to females paired with unattractive males. We experimentally tested this hypothesis in the peafowl
(Pavo cristatus) by providing females with males that differed in sexual attractiveness. In agreement with the differential allocation hypothesis,
females paired with more ornamented males laid larger eggs, and deposited higher amounts of testosterone into the egg yolk,
independently of the sex of the embryo. These results show that the association between paternal phenotype and offspring quality
could arise via a differential maternal investment. They also suggest that, if ornamented males do transmit good genes to
the progeny, the maternal differential investment can amplify the effect of such good genes on the offspring fitness. |
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| Keywords: | Good genes Maternal differential investment Egg size Yolk testosterone Sexual selection |
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