Sperm blocking is not a male adaptation to sperm competition in a parasitoid wasp

Rebecca A Boulton, Nicola Cook, Jade Green, Elisabeth V (Ginny) Greenway, David M Shuker and Luke HolmanHandling Editor

Behavioral Ecology, 2018, vol. 29, issue 1, 253-263

Abstract: Although mating with multiple males should provide females with more sperm, in the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis females that mate multiply produce more unfertilized eggs (which in this species develop as sons due to haplodiploidy). We tested whether this was due to males “blocking†or “incapacitating†the sperms of their rivals. Instead of being a male adaptation to sperm competition, however, our results suggest that this reflects a female constraint on sperm processing.

Keywords: local mate competition; polyandry; postcopulatory sexual selection; sex allocation; sperm competition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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