Title |
True polyandry and pseudopolyandry: why does a monandrous fly remate?
|
---|---|
Published in |
BMC Ecology and Evolution, July 2013
|
DOI | 10.1186/1471-2148-13-157 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
David N Fisher, Rowan J Doff, Tom A R Price |
Abstract |
The rate of female remating can have important impacts on a species, from affecting conflict and cooperation within families, to population viability and gene flow. However, determining the level of polyandry in a species can be difficult, with information on the mating system of many species being based on a single experiment, or completely absent. Here we investigate the mating system of the fruit fly Drosophila subobscura. Reports from England, Spain and Canada suggest D. subobscura is entirely monandrous, with no females remating. However, work in Greece suggests that 23% of females remate. We examine the willingness of female D. subobscura to remate in the laboratory in a range of conditions, using flies from both Greece and England. We make a distinction between pseudopolyandry, where a female remates after an ineffective first mating that is incapable of fertilising her eggs, and true polyandry, where a female remates even though she has received suitable sperm from a previous mating. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom | 1 | 33% |
Canada | 1 | 33% |
Unknown | 1 | 33% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 33% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 33% |
Scientists | 1 | 33% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Spain | 1 | 2% |
United States | 1 | 2% |
Unknown | 49 | 96% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 13 | 25% |
Student > Bachelor | 11 | 22% |
Researcher | 10 | 20% |
Other | 2 | 4% |
Professor > Associate Professor | 2 | 4% |
Other | 5 | 10% |
Unknown | 8 | 16% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 31 | 61% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 5 | 10% |
Unspecified | 1 | 2% |
Environmental Science | 1 | 2% |
Psychology | 1 | 2% |
Other | 1 | 2% |
Unknown | 11 | 22% |