Risk trading in mating behavior: forgoing anti-predator responses reduces the likelihood of missing terminal mating opportunities |
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Authors: | Marie Lafaille Gaëlle Bimbard Michael D Greenfield |
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Institution: | 1. Institut de Recherche sur la Biologie de l’Insecte, CNRS UMR 6035, Université Fran?ois Rabelais de Tours, 37200, Tours, France
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Abstract: | Life history theory predicts that organisms make certain adjustments to their current and future reproductive effort such
that fitness is maximized. Moreover, these adjustments may be fine tuned in response to risks of attack by natural enemies.
Thus, we may predict that as an organism ages it will accept increasing levels of exposure to predators during mating activities,
effectively trading the risk of losing terminal mating opportunities for the risk of predation. We tested this prediction
in an acoustic moth, Achroia grisella, in which females orient toward and evaluate males based on their ultrasonic calling song, and both sexes may be vulnerable
to predation by insectivorous bats while in flight as well as on the substrate. In the latter situation, singing males and
orienting females show silence and arrestment responses, respectively, when presented with synthetic bat echolocation signals
broadcast above a threshold amplitude. We found that both males and females become less sensitive to these broadcasts over
the course of their brief reproductive periods, 7 and 5 days, respectively. Over the same periods, sensitivity to male song
in both males and females remains constant, and relatively little senescence in sexual behavior is observed. These results
support the risk trading hypothesis, and they indicate that life history principles may apply over a very short lifespan. |
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