Mate Selection on Anastrepha curvicauda: Effect of Weight, Age, and Virginity

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Mating happens when males and females look for potential partners for reproduction. Each potential partner represents an array of qualities for each gender. Males may search for virgin, young, and large females as they offer many eggs for fertilization, while females may look for virgin, young, and large males as these may provide more food, sperm, and protection, or more extensive territories. However, nature can be counterintuitive, and the above statement is only sometimes true. Females prefer old males as mating partners, and females may not prefer virgin males for copulation. Identifying the attributes selected by each gender provides helpful information for implementing population management tactics and understanding the evolution of the species. Anastrepha curvicauda is a fruit fly that infests papaya fruit, rendering it unprofitable. Females do not discriminate between males, but males prefer to mate with virgin, young, and large females. ABSTRACT: Sexual selection determines the evolution of the species by favoring some attributes that confer a reproductive advantage to those individuals with those attributes. Tephritidae flies do not always select the same traits when looking for a mating partner. Some aspects of the mating system of Anastrepha curvicauda are known; nevertheless, there is no information on the effect of age, size, and virginity when selecting a mating partner. We set up a series of experiments where a selector (male or female) may select between (a) an old or young partner, (b) a small or large partner, and (c) a virgin or mated partner. Males of A. curvicauda significantly preferred large, young, and virgin females, while females showed no preference for high- or low-quality males. The females’ non-preference for a particular male is discussed in the light of their mating system.