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Learning affects mate choice in female fruit flies

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  • Reuven Dukas

Abstract

Learning in the context of mate choice can influence sexual selection and speciation. Relatively little work, however, has been conducted on the role of learning in the context of mate choice, and this topic has been mostly ignored in insects even though insects have served as a prime model system in research on sexual selection and incipient speciation. Extending recent work indicating apparently adaptive learning in the context of sexual behavior by male fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), I tested for the effect of learning on mate choice by female fruit flies. Compared to young virgin females that experienced courtship by large males, young virgin females that experienced courtship by small males were more likely to mate with small and large males in a test conducted a day after the experience phase. These results, which are the first clear empirical demonstration of learning in the context of mate choice by female insects, lay the foundation for research on the role of learning in insect sexual selection and speciation. Copyright 2005.

Suggested Citation

  • Reuven Dukas, 2005. "Learning affects mate choice in female fruit flies," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 16(4), pages 800-804, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:16:y:2005:i:4:p:800-804
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/ari057
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    Cited by:

    1. Nathan W Bailey & Lucas Marie-Orleach & Allen J Moore & Leigh SimmonsEditor-in-Chief, 2018. "Indirect genetic effects in behavioral ecology: does behavior play a special role in evolution?," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 29(1), pages 1-11.

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