Summary: 754
2002 The Society for the Study of Evolution. All rights reserved.
Evolution, 56(4), 2002, pp. 754­767
SEXUALLY ANTAGONISTIC COEVOLUTION IN A MATING SYSTEM:
COMBINING EXPERIMENTAL AND COMPARATIVE APPROACHES TO ADDRESS
EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSES
LOCKE ROWE1,2,3 AND GO¨ RAN ARNQVIST4
1Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G5, Canada
2Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2C6 Canada
3E-mail: lrowe@zoo.toronto.edu
4Department of Animal Ecology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, University of Uppsala, Norbyva¨gen 18d,
SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
Abstract. We combined experimental and comparative techniques to study the evolution of mating behaviors within
in a clade of 15 water striders (Gerris spp.). Superfluous multiple mating is costly to females in this group, and
consequently there is overt conflict between the sexes over mating. Two alternative hypotheses that could generate
interspecific variation in mating behaviors are tested: interspecific variation in optimal female mating rate versus
sexually antagonistic coevolution of persistence and resistance traits. These potentially coevolving traits include male
grasping and female antigrasping structures that further the interests of one sex over the other during premating
struggles. Both processes are known to play a role in observed behavioral variation within species. We used two large
sets of experiments to quantify behavioral differences among species, as well as their response to an environmentally

Source: Arnqvist, Göran - Department of Animal Ecology, Uppsala Universitet
Rowe, Locke - Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto

Collections: Environmental Sciences and Ecology