Sperm Competition and Its Evolutionary Consequences in the Insects

By Leigh W. Simmons. 2001

499 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Ashot on goal does not ensure victory*.Likewise, insemination does not guaranteepaternity. When females store sperm fromseveral males, each male’s fitness dependson his ability to tilt the ensuing fertilizationcontest (sperm competition) in his favour.How males achieve this goal was the mainfocus of study for 30 years. Recently,however, there have been more questionsabout how females influence spermcompetition (cryptic female choice). Toanswer them, we need to know why femalesmate multiply. What are the fitness benefitsand consequent selection on femalemorphology, physiology and behaviour? In spite of the newfound popularity ofcryptic female choice, driven largely byBillEberhard’s book [1] and more recentwork on sexual conflict, the available dataare still limited. It is testimony to Simmons’hard-nosed empiricism that he pays moreattention to questions from the traditional‘male perspective’.The best chapter in the 1998 collection

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics, Insect Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ae3784847681590e17ab59909d353a1876bfcc4a

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Citations in the corpus

On the role of male competition in speciation: a review and research agenda (2018, background): “Darwin and his contemporaries had little trouble reasoning that competition for mates could result in adaptations like exaggerated weaponry that enhanced mating success, but had more difficulty imagining how mating preferences could lead to differential mating success (Simmons 2001).”
Unifying and Testing Models of Sexual Selection (2006, background): “…eggs—multiple mating in internal fertilizers ( Jennions & Petrie 2000) or simultaneous sperm release by adjacent males in external fertilizers (Byrne et al. 2003)—selection favors traits of males or their sperm that increase the prospects of fertilizing more eggs than their rivals (Simmons 2001).”
Male perception of female mating status: its effect on copulation duration, sperm defence and female fitness (2006, background): “Success in sperm competition often relies on a whole suite of adaptations (involving behavioural, morphological and physiological traits) that act before, during and/or after copulation (Parker 1970; Simmons 2001 ).”
Sexual conflict over copulation duration in a cannibalistic spider (2006, background): “The duration of copulation has long been identified as one of the most critical variables explaining success in sperm competition, although its effects can be manifold (Simmons 2001).”
Mate retention, semen displacement, and human sperm competition: a preliminary investigation of tactics to prevent and correct female infidelity (2005, background): “Sperm competition has been documented or inferred to exist in many species, ranging from molluscs (Baur, 1998) and insects (Simmons, 2001) to birds (Birkhead & Møller, 1992) and humans (Baker & Bellis, 1993a, 1993b; Gallup et al., 2003; Shackelford, 2003; Shackelford, Goetz, LaMunyon, Quintus, &…”
Sexual selection and genital evolution. (2004, methodology): “As noted by Alexander et al. [32] and others [1, 20 ], elements of conflict and cooperation must exist in reproduction, so benefits and costs must therefore also exist, and it is measuring the balance between the two that is of most interest.”
Genital damage in the orb-web spider Argiope bruennichi (Araneae: Araneidae) increases paternity success (2007, background): “Prolonged copulations are commonly associated with increased paternity shares (Saul et al. 1988; Wolf et al. 1989) and of fundamental importance for postcopulatory sexual selection in many invertebrates ( Simmons 2001 ), including many spiders (Elgar 1998).”
Sexual selection and genital evolution (2014, background): “None of these mechanisms of sexual selection are mutually exclusive (Simmons 2001); for example, female choice represents a key component of sexual conflict (Arnqvist & Rowe 2005).”
Female Callosobruchus maculatus mate when they are thirsty: resource-rich ejaculates as mating effort in a beetle (2007, background): “Most female insects are promiscuous and last-male sperm precedence is often high (Simmons 2001).”
Variation in paternity in the field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus: no detectable influence of sperm numbers or sperm length (2003, background): “In conclusion, sperm morphology, particularly in insects, exhibits rapid and divergent evolution ( Simmons, 2001b; Sivinski, 1980, 1984).”
Human Sperm Competition (2015, unknown): “(Simmons, 2001) to birds (Birkhead & Møller, 1992) and mammals (Gomendio, Harcourt, & Roldán, 1998).”
Evolutionary Significance of Sexual Cannibalism (2004, background): “Thus, the duration of mate guarding is determined by balancing the benefits of remaining with the female against the costs of not securing matings with other females (Parker, 1974; Simmons, 2001).”