Sexual signalling and viability in a wolf spider (Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata): measurements under laboratory and field conditions

This study examined the crucial prediction of the conditional-handicap theory, the relationship between male sexual trait size and male viability, in the wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata. In this species, males court females by drumming dry leaves with their abdomen, and males with the highest drumming rate enjoy highest mating success. We determined male drumming rate, body mass, and mobility, which reflects mate-searching activity, in relation to male survival. Because it is often difficult to know how results obtained from laboratory studies reflect the natural world, particularly when the measured variable is survival, we repeated our study in both laboratory and field conditions. Males drumming at the highest rate survived better than males drumming at a lower rate in both laboratory and field conditions. These results are in accordance with the predictions of conditional-handicap models of sexual selection. Survival was independent of male body mass and there was no significant correlation between male drumming activity and body mass. However, large males moved further than smaller males, and males moving longer distances lost less mass than those moving shorter distances. These results suggest that, moving, and consequently mate-searching activity, may be a condition-dependent trait and that there may be a advantage for large males in mate searching. Received: 22 October 1998 / Received in revised form: 28 January 1999 / Accepted: 14 February 1999     

Asymmetry in a visual signaling character and sexual selection in a wolf spider

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) can indicate developmental instability in bilaterally symmetric organisms, and studies have shown that the degree of asymmetry in male secondary sexual characters influences female mate choice in a number of taxa. In male Schizocosa ocreata wolf spiders, conspicuous tufts of bristles on the forelegs are a critical component of visual courtship signals, which appear to play a role in female mate choice. Previous studies have shown that females exhibit reduced receptivity to males with regenerative asymmetry, a consequence of leg loss and regeneration that causes males to be grossly asymmetric with respect to this important signaling character. We provide data on the occurrence of FA in the tufts of S. ocreata, and examine further the influence of asymmetry on female mate choice. The distribution of tuft area asymmetry values from a sample of field-collected males was normal, with a mean value of zero, indicating true FA. For a subset of males measured directly after field collection and prior to feeding, tuft asymmetry was significantly negatively correlated with measures of body size (body length) and condition (abdomen volume/cephalothorax width). Receptivity responses of females to visual signals from live males of similar size varied with the degree of asymmetry in male tufts. Since FA covaries with male body size and condition, which may also influence behavioral vigor, we used video image manipulation to alter the degree of asymmetry in tufts of a courting male while holding size and condition constant. Asymmetry treatments represented values within the range of natural FA variation as well as more extreme values characteristic of regenerative asymmetry. With the confounding effects of male size, condition, and behavior held constant, female spiders exhibited reduced receptivity responses to all experimental asymmetric video images relative to a control video stimulus. There were no differences in the frequency of female receptivity among the various asymmetry treatments, suggesting that discrimination against asymmetry in conspecific male signal characters is not simply a rejection of extreme phenotypes. Results suggest that asymmetry in a key male secondary character used in visual signaling, independent of any concomitant behavioral or size factor, is an important criterion in mate choice. Received: 26 February 1998 / Accepted after revision: 12 September 1998     

度量生态服务价值的选择实验:方法介绍及案例研究

选择实验作为一种价值评估工具,自1990年代以来被应用于生态环境和自然资源利用领域。选择试验不同于开放式或封闭式条件价值法中采用的那种直接出价方式,它实际上模拟了一个关于不同水平属性组合的交易市场。由于选择实验可以评价生态环境和自然资源利用的某一属性,所以这一方法更适合作为生态补偿政策的评估工具。选择实验基于特征效用理论和随机效用理论,该方法成功的关键是选定合适的属性及其水平。设计选择实验目前最有效的方法是D-效率设计,这一设计要求的原则是水平平衡,正交性,最少重叠,以及效用平衡。作为案例研究,本文利用选择实验计算了资兴东江湖雾的景观价值。将影响东江湖旅游这一产品的效用和价值的主要属性确定为雾、其他自然景观、设施以及门票,其中门票价格是成本属性。数据由课题组实地通过问卷调查获得。计算结果是,相对于无雾,东江湖游客愿意支付132.93元看到小雾,支付136.59元看到仙境雾。本文还计算出让其他自然景观维持现状、变好的支付意愿分别为151.84、198.98元,让道路及旅游服务设施变得更好的支付意愿是28.43元。     

中国城市包容度与流动人口的社会融合

当前中国流动人口规模、流向、结构、流动模式和群体利益诉求都在发生深刻变化,滋生出一系列经济社会发展的重大问题,其中社会融合问题受到各界最广泛关注。社会融合问题从城市层面看就是"城市包容度"问题,该命题新、难度大、范围广,国内外研究成果较少。本研究以此为核心,创新性构建了以社会保险参加情况、劳动权益保障程度、公共服务享受范围为主要准则的城市包容度综合指标体系,运用主成分分析法合成"城市包容度综合指数",进而通过非线性离散选择模型探讨流动人口长期居住意愿、落户难度、就业稳定度与城市包容度指标之间的相关关系。基于国家卫生计生委流动人口动态监测数据(2013—2014年)开展研究,主要结论为:中国城市包容度水平越高的城市,流动人口长期居住意愿越强、落户越容易、就业越稳定。进而提出政策建议:建立完善的城市流动人口服务和安置政策体系,直接和间接促进流动人口社会融合;形成有效融合机制,实现居民福利最大化及城市协同发展;制定科学的产业政策和户籍制度,引导匹配城市产业结构的人口流入,实现合理布局;结合顶层设计与基层探索,实现城市包容性增长与制度改进。本文归纳总结出"两个新体系":建立了城市包容度综合指数测算体系,及应用城市包容度指数定量研究的范式体系。     

Eliciting preferences for wetland services: a way to manage conflicting land uses

A choice experiment was used to analyse the preferences of residents neighbouring the Erstein polder (Alsace, France) for the different services that it provides. The heterogeneous nature of these preferences was shown through the use of a latent class model. Whilst the population as a whole values the improvement in water quality and the contribution, even partial, to flood protection, preferences differ when it comes to biodiversity and public access to the site. This study shows the potential conflicts between the different uses of the Erstein polder. These conflicts represent different communication themes for the site managers.     

Why are Californians interested in hybrid cars?

This paper explores quantitatively Californians' interest in hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) based on a statewide phone survey conducted in July 2004 by the Public Policy Institute of California. The paper develops ordered choice models and factors that summarise beliefs about energy and the environment using principal component analysis. As expected, Californians concerned about the environment, energy efficiency, global warming and recent increases in the price of gasoline state a higher interest in hybrids; an even more important reason for considering hybrid electric vehicles, however, is the possibility of using high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes while driving alone, especially for people with potentially long commutes to work. The findings also suggest that beliefs about energy and the environment should be included in vehicle type choice models.     

Sperm allocation in an uncertain world

Models of optimal sperm allocation are constructed using stochastic dynamic programming techniques, yielding predictions about sperm allocation when males mate sequentially, breeding time is finite, sperm stores are limited and females vary in quality. The models suggest that uncertainty of future reproductive opportunities should favour withholding of sperm, so that males tend to allocate less (for a given level of stored sperm) earlier in the breeding season. This effect is more pronounced the greater the variance in female quality. We also show that while allocation will be influenced by mate value, it is not necessarily optimal to allocate preferentially to high-quality females, since the benefits of a higher-quality mate may be offset by increased risk of rejection of sperm or higher sperm competition. The relationship between mate quality and level of allocation will depend strongly on the amount of remaining stored sperm, with males whose supplies are depleted being more likely to favour lower-quality partners. Received: 12 September 1997 / Accepted after revision: 28 June 1998     

Measuring mate choice using correlation: the effect of female sampling behaviour

For intersexual selection to occur, it is necessary that females choose between males. It is now well appreciated that constraints exist, which preclude females sampling all the available males in a population. These constraints are likely to have caused the evolution of sampling rules (such as the “best-of-n” rule) by which females sample males. Here we investigate the impact of female subsampling of the male population, not on the evolution of sampling behaviour, but on the population-level correlation between a male trait and currencies such as reproductive success. This study is important as it illustrates when population-level correlations can be safely used to infer the presence and strength of sexual selection in the field. We find that the correlation between a male trait and a mate choice variable rises steeply as the number of males sampled by each female increases, flattening above seven to ten males sampled. This shape is found to be remarkably robust, and little affected by, for example, the mate choice variable used, by noise in assessment, by sampling behaviour depending on female quality, or by population size. The only variable found to have a large impact is male clumping according to their “quality”. If females are sampling about four males, the maximum correlation that can be found at the population level is in the range 0.4–0.6, perhaps as little as 0.1 if males are strongly clumped. A recent review of the literature suggests that four is the average number of males that females sample. Thus, the absence of a strong correlation cannot by itself be used to infer that sexual selection is weak, as it may be due to females sampling few males. Received: 18 May 1998 / Accepted after revision: 18 July 1998     

Do female black-capped chickadees prefer high-ranking males as extra-pair partners?

Previous studies have shown that some female black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) solicit copulations from males that rank higher in winter flocks than their social mates, and extra-pair paternity in nests occurs commonly enough to be considered a potential female mating tactic. This study uses blood samples collected in 1992–1995 from 58 families of black-capped chickadees to test whether females with extra-pair offspring have chosen extra-pair sires higher in social rank than their mates. Paternity was assessed with multilocus DNA fingerprinting in 1992–1994 nests and with microsatellite and single-locus minisatellite DNA typing in 1995 nests. Seventeen of 58 nests (29.3%) contained young genetically mismatched with their social father. In 11 of 15 cases where the identity of the extra-pair male was known, the extra-pair male was dominant to the social father. Using data from 29 nests located in 1994 and 1995 for which we had the most data on relative ranks of males, high-ranking males had greater realized reproductive success than low-ranking males as a result of extra-pair fertilizations. There was no significant difference between the number of nests containing extra-pair young of females mated to low-ranked versus high-ranked males. Two nests in 1995 contained young either genetically mismatched with both social parents (intraspecific brood parasitism) or, in one nest, genetically mismatched with the social mother but not the social father (quasi-parasitism). The implications of female strategies acquiring genetic benefits through extra-pair copulations are discussed. Received: 7 July 1997 / Accepted after revision: 14 March 1998     

Fluctuating asymmetry and sperm transfer in male decorated field crickets (Gryllodes sigillatus)

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) in limb size in female decorated field crickets (Gryllodes sigillatus) was associated with a reduction in the size of the spermatophore and the amount of sperm transferred by males and an increase in the time taken to transfer a spermatophore following introduction of a female. There was a weaker negative relationship between limb asymmetry in males and sperm number but no significant relationship between asymmetry in either sex and spermatophylax size. In line with a previous study, female size did not appear to influence spermatophore production or mating decisions by males. The results imply that developmental instability affects both gamete production and mating decisions among males, although the relationships between spermatophore size, sperm number and asymmetry in females are unlikely to be the result of males perceiving differences in female FA. Received: 24 July 1999 / Received in revised form: 22 November 1999 / Accepted: 31 December 1999