Eat me alive

Sexually cannibalistic mating systems provide an excellent opportunity to examine and gain a better understanding of male mate choice, that is, mate choice between two or more individuals and/or the more extreme form of choice that manifests as mate rejection.
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[M]ales rarely rejected poor-condition females in the more ecologically relevant scenario of only one immediate mating opportunity.
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This lack of male mate choice… may be partially explained by the strong/intense scramble competition selecting for efficient mate location…; the cost of not finding a female may exceed the cost of not being choosy.

– (Barry et al. 2010)

Reference:
Barry, K. L., Holwell, G. I. & Herberstein, M. E. 2010. Multimodal mate assessment by male praying mantids in a sexually cannibalistic mating system. Animal Behaviour, 79 1165-1172.

This entry was written by Joey, posted on April 30, 2010 at 3:18 am, filed under Science, Sex and tagged Coping Mechanism, He's Just Not That Into Me. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.