Data from: Female effects, but no intrinsic male effects on paternity outcome in crickets

Competitive fertilization success can depend on the relative abilities of competing males to fertilize available ova, and on mechanisms of cryptic female choice that moderate paternity. Competitive fertilization success is thus an emergent property of competing male genotypes, female genotype and their interactions. Accurate estimates of intrinsic male effects on competitive fertilization success are therefore problematic. We used a cross-classified nonbreeding design in which rival male family background was standardized to partition variation in competitive fertilization success among male and female family backgrounds in the field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus. Male effects were close to zero, supporting previous quantitative genetic designs in which male competitors were assigned at random. In contrast, some 22% of the variance in competitive fertilization success was explained by female effects, suggesting that paternity in this species is influenced strongly by cryptic female choice.

竞争受精成功率既取决于竞争雄性使可利用卵子受精的相对能力，也取决于调控父本分配的隐蔽雌性选择（cryptic female choice）机制。由此可见，竞争受精成功率是竞争雄性基因型、雌性基因型及其交互作用的涌现属性。故而，精准估算雄性内在效应对竞争受精成功率的影响颇具难度。本研究采用交叉分类非繁育实验设计，将竞争者雄性的家系背景进行标准化处理，以此拆分野外澳洲钟蟋（Teleogryllus oceanicus）的竞争受精成功率在雌雄家系背景间的变异。结果显示雄性效应趋近于零，这与此前通过随机分配雄性竞争者所开展的定量遗传实验结果相符。与之形成鲜明反差的是，约22%的竞争受精成功率变异可由雌性效应解释，这表明该物种的父本分配过程强烈受到隐蔽雌性选择的调控。