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Article
Song structure of male Northern House Wrens and patterns of song production and delivery across the nesting cycle
Studies of the role of bird song in avian communication have revealed numerous functions across many species, including its critical importance in female mate choice (intersexual selection) and male-male compe...
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Article
Female birds monitor the activity of their mates while brooding nest-bound young
In addition to food and protection, altricial young in many species are ectothermic and require that endothermic parents provide warmth to foster growth, yet only one parent—typically the female—broods these y...
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Article
Male and female genotype and a genotype-by-genotype interaction mediate the effects of mating on cellular but not humoral immunity in female decorated crickets
Sexually antagonistic coevolution is predicted to lead to the divergence of male and female genotypes related to the effects of substances transferred by males at mating on female physiology. The outcome of ma...
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Article
Open AccessOffspring dependence on parental care and the role of parental transfer of oral fluids in burying beetles
Immature stages of many animals can forage and feed on their own, whereas others depend on their parents’ assistance to obtain or process food. But how does such dependency evolve, and which offspring and pare...
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Article
A dynamic threshold model for terminal investment
Although reproductive strategies can be influenced by a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, life history theory provides a rigorous framework for explaining variation in reproductive effort. The terminal ...
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Article
Behavioral Plasticity in Response to Perceived Predation Risk in Breeding House Wrens
Predation is a significant cause of nest failure in passerine birds, and, thus, natural selection is expected to favor behavioral plasticity to allow birds to respond to perceived changes in predation risk. Ho...
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Article
Maternal Natal Environment and Breeding Territory Predict the Condition and Sex Ratio of Offspring
Females in a variety of taxa adjust offspring sex ratios to prevailing ecological conditions. However, little is known about whether conditions experienced during a female’s early ontogeny influence the sex ra...
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Article
Access to a carcass, but not mating opportunities, influences paternal care in burying beetles
Selection should favor greater parental effort when the caring individual is more likely to be related to the offspring in its care. If certainty of paternity varies across broods, plasticity in the extent of ...
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Article
Open AccessFrom facultative to obligatory parental care: Interspecific variation in offspring dependency on post-hatching care in burying beetles
Studies on the evolution of parental care have focused primarily on the costs and benefits of parental care and the life-history attributes that favour it. However, once care evolves, offspring in some taxa ap...
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Article
Open AccessGenetic and environmental variation in condition, cutaneous immunity, and haematocrit in house wrens
Life-history studies of wild bird populations often focus on the relationship between an individual’s condition and its capacity to mount an immune response, as measured by a commonly-employed assay of cutaneo...
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Article
Reproductive allocation in female house wrens is not influenced by experimentally altered male attractiveness
The differential allocation hypothesis proposes that females mated to attractive males should invest more resources in their offspring than those mated to less-attractive males, whereas the compensation hypoth...
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Article
The Effects of Age and Previous Mating Experience on Pre- and Post-copulatory Mate Choice in Female House Crickets (Acheta domesticus L.)
Although females’ mating preferences are influenced by male characteristics, there are a number of factors intrinsic to females and unrelated to male phenotype that can modulate female choice. We assessed the ...
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Article
Risk of Sperm Competition Mediates Copulation Duration, but not Paternity, of Male Burying Beetles
Males should increase their investment in ejaculates whenever they are faced with an increased risk of sperm competition. Burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides), insects that breed on small vertebrate carcass...
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Article
Female-coerced monogamy in burying beetles
The reproductive interests of the sexes often do not coincide, and this fundamental conflict is believed to underlie a variety of sex-specific behavioral adaptations. Sexual conflict in burying beetles arises ...
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Article
the effect of pair formation on diel calling patterns in two cricket species,Gryllus veletis andGryllodes sigillatus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae)
After pair formation, male crickets should reduce calling to minimize the risks to males of attracting predators and/or rivals. We tested this hypothesis in two cricket species, one in which males exhibit a hi.....
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Article
Repeated matings offset costs of reproduction in female crickets
Courtship food gifts can be a significant source of nutrition to females and costly for males to produce; hence, costs of reproduction should be reduced for multiple-mating females and increased for multiplema...
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Article
Virgin male mating advantage in a primitive acoustic insect (Orthoptera: Haglidae)
Male reproductive behavior in the relict flightless haglid, Cyphoderris strepitans,entails the generation of sound signals and the provision of nuptial gifts to mates. These food gifts take two forms: (1) a gela...
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Article
Northeasterly orientation and defense of nest entrances in the harvester ant,Pogonomyrmex owyheei
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Article
Mating and its effect on acoustic signalling behaviour in a primitive orthopteran, Cyphoderris strepitans (Haglidae): the cost of feeding females
Males of the primitive orthopteran, Cyphoderris strepitans, provide their mates with two types of nuptial food gift during mating: 1) females feed while coupled on the fleshy metathoracic wings of the male and th...
