Data from: Female-biased spontaneous dispersal in Drosophila melanogaster: The influence of nutrition and density on their movement

Dispersal is often essential for attaining Darwinian fitness, especially
for species living in spatially structured, heterogeneous habitats.
Theoretically, sex-specific resource requirements can drive the two sexes
to disperse differently, resulting in sex-biased dispersal (SBD).
Understanding ecological factors affecting SBD is important. Using an
experimental two-patch dispersal setup we measured spontaneous dispersal
in laboratory-adapted populations of Drosophila melanogaster under a set
of common, interlinked ecological scenarios relating to – (a) dietary
ecology and (b) adult density. We found the deteriorating overall
nutritional quality of food affects the strength of SBD, and female
dispersal is particularly sensitive to the availability of protein. Adult
density had sex sex-specific effect on dispersal. Female dispersal was
found to be density-independent but males showed increased dispersal at
higher density. Females tend to disperse more from male-biased patches
likely to avoid male harassment whereas the absence of females drives male
dispersal solidifying the mate-finding dispersal hypothesis. This evidence
of dispersal suggests that variation in dietary ecology and intraspecific
competition can affect the degree and strength of existing SBD and thereby
male-female interactions in a patch potentially affecting fitness
components and population dynamics.