Mating Systems and StrategiesThis book presents the first unified conceptual and statistical framework for understanding the evolution of reproductive strategies. Using the concept of the opportunity for sexual selection, the authors illustrate how and why sexual selection, though restricted to one sex and opposed in the other, is one of the strongest and fastest of all evolutionary forces. They offer a statistical framework for studying mating system evolution and apply it to patterns of alternative mating strategies. In doing so, they provide a method for quantifying how the strength of sexual selection is affected by the ecological and life history processes that influence females' spatial and temporal clustering and reproductive schedules. |
From inside the book
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... mate numbers? The answer is this: As average harem size changes, so does the variance in mate numbers among males. The variance in mate numbers describes the “spread” of the distribution of mates per male around the population average ...
... mate with one or more different females. As we have shown above, R equals the average number of mates per male. The parameter R also equals the sex ratio, Nfemales/ Nmales. In future examples, we will let Vmates be the variance in mate ...
... mate numbers to affect O.) The population of males can be viewed as consisting of the k categories given in table 1.3. The total variance in male reproductive success is the sum of two components: (a) the average variance in offspring ...
... mate numbers, Vmates, divided by the square of the average number of mates per male, R. This expression is the component of male relative fitness that results from reproductive competition among males. Since both the numerator and ...
... mate numbers, it will not become greater when the random component of variation is excluded. More to the point, since variance in mating success among females is small in most species, even random variation among males in mate numbers ...
Contents
1 | |
36 | |
3 The Phenology of Sexual Selection | 74 |
4 Multiple Matings and Postcopulatory Prezygotic Sexual Selection ... | 109 |
5 Female Life History and Sexual Selection | 128 |
6 The I Surface | 154 |
7 Conceptual Difficulties in Mating System Research ... | 169 |
8 Behavioral Influences on I | 208 |
10 A Darwinian Perspective on Alternative Mating Strategies ... | 370 |
11 Sexual Selection and Alternative Mating Strategies ... | 386 |
12 The Forms of Alternative Mating Strategies | 423 |
References | 471 |
Author Index | 517 |
Word Index | 526 |
Taxonomic Index | 530 |
9 A Classification of Mating Systems | 262 |