Disruptive sexual selection on male body size in the polyphenic black scavenger fly Sepsis thoracica

Juan Pablo Busso and Wolf U Blanckenhorn

Behavioral Ecology, 2018, vol. 29, issue 3, 769-777

Abstract: Males of the fly Sepsis thoracica, which breeds in livestock dung, are either small and black or large and amber. In trying to understand the evolution of this rare phenomenon, we found that large amber males were more successful in obtaining mates, while small black males had greater mating success than males of intermediate size and color. This was mediated by different alternative aggressive mating behaviors that mainly differed in extent.

Keywords: body size; Diptera; female preference; fly; male–male competition; mating; melanism; polymorphism; threshold trait; trade-off (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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