Gender differences in survival and antipredatory behavior in stalk-eyed flies

Amy M. Worthington and John G. Swallow

Behavioral Ecology, 2010, vol. 21, issue 4, 759-766

Abstract: Exaggerated eye span of stalk-eyed flies is a classic example of the evolution of an extravagant male ornament resulting from sexual selection. Increased male eye span may entail costs associated with production and/or maintenance, including potential locomotor costs that may increase predation risk. However, behavioral responses by individuals may alter the relationship between a morphological trait and performance, increasing expected overall fitness. Antipredator behavior and survival of male and female Teleopsis dalmanni were quantified during pairwise interactions between individual flies and an actively foraging, generalist arachnid predator (Phidippus audax). Male and female flies were compared under the assumption that female stalk length is closer to the optimum set by natural selection. There were significant differences in behaviors between the sexes, with males spending more time engaged in aggressive actions. Interestingly, males also exhibited increased survival relative to females. Within males, survivors did not differ from nonsurvivors in any of the morphological measures, including eye span, but there was a significant difference in abdomen bobbing, grooming, and flight. These results highlight the importance of behavior in the ability of stalk-eyed flies to effectively elude predators, but they do not support the hypothesis that male stalk-eyed flies suffer increased predation due to exaggerated eyestalks. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arq050 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:beheco:v:21:y:2010:i:4:p:759-766

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Behavioral Ecology is currently edited by Louise Barrett

More articles in Behavioral Ecology from International Society for Behavioral Ecology Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().