Data from: Cryptic male mate choice for high-quality females reduces male postcopulatory success in future matings

Cryptic male mate choice occurs when males differentially allocate
resources to females during or after copulation. When male resources are
limited, males may benefit by strategically allocating more resources
toward higher-quality females. In the fruit fly, Drosophila
melanogaster, males mate for longer and may transfer more sperm and more
seminal proteins when they mate with larger females compared to smaller
females. It is unclear, however, whether this increased investment in
large females has any impact on the males’ later matings. We
mated D. melanogaster males sequentially to females of
large or small body size in all possible combinations to test
whether cryptic male mate choice for large females is costly to the males’
subsequent matings. Second matings were shorter for males compared to
their first matings, but there were no differences in fecundity between
females mated first or second by a male. Interestingly,
male success at defensive sperm competition declined between his
first and second matings only when his first mating had been with a large
female. This suggests that the higher initial
investment in large females reduced male postcopulatory success
in their subsequent matings. Cryptic male mate choice may carry
underappreciated costs to males that could limit their reproductive
potential.