Sexual conflict over mating duration in Drosophila melanogaster

Mating duration varies widely between and within species, often lasting longer than is necessary for sperm transfer. Prolonged copulations can be energetically expensive and take time and resources that could otherwise be directed elsewhere, so extended matings likely provide benefits to one or both sexes that outweigh these costs. In the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, mating duration is primarily under male control and continues after sperm transfer has ended. Although there is evidence that mating duration may affect fitness-related traits in this system, controlled experiments investigating the impacts of naturally occurring variation in mating duration on both males and females are lacking. We used hemiclonal analysis in D. melanogaster to investigate the consequences of prolonged matings for both sexes by mating males from long- and short-mating hemiclone lines to females of varying sizes. Males with longer mating durations sired a greater proportion of offspring (i.e., had hi..., , , # Data from: Sexual conflict over mating duration in Drosophila melanogaster

## Description of the data and file structure

**HCMD_PropL.csv**
*A subset of the data from Freed et al. 2025 ([https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh2)) measuring the proportion of courtship directed toward the large female for each hemiclone line used in the present study.*
“Block” = the experimental block
“Observer” = the observer
\"Clone\" = the specific hemiclone line
“Vial” = the vial label for that male during that block
\"UnitsCourtL\" = the courtship units directed to the large female by the male
\"UnitsCourtS\" = the courtship units directed to toward the small female by the male
\"Treatment\" = the mating duration treatment (Long or Short) for that hemiclone line

**HCMD_CE.csv**
*A subset of the data from Freed et al. 2025 ([https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh2)) measuring the courtship effort for each hemiclone line used...,