Data from: Variation in thermal courtship activity curves across individuals exceeds variation across populations and sexes

The dynamics of mating interactions can vary in response to a wide variety
of environmental factors. Here, we investigate the potential for
individuals to vary consistently in the environmental conditions under
which they actively engage in courtship. We describe variation in how
courtship activity changes with environmental temperature in Enchenopa
binotata treehoppers. Male E. binotata produce vibrational courtship
signals and receptive females respond with their own sex-specific
vibrational courtship signal. We tested each individual twice for the
production of courtship signals across a range of ecologically
ecologically-relevant temperatures. Then, we measured repeatability and
variability in the resulting thermal courtship activity curves, including
the temperature of peak activity and tolerance to thermal extremes. We
also looked at patterns of variation across populations. We found minimal
variation across populations, but significant variation across
individuals. Specifically, we found prevalent repeatability how thermally
generalized or specialized individuals are. However, repeatability was
limited to females only. We also found higher variability in female traits
than in male traits, although patterns of variability did not always
predict patterns of repeatability. These results suggest that thermal
variation could alter the dynamics of mate competition, and that—due to
potentially different selective optima for males and females—the sexes may
respond to changes in temperature in different ways. Specifically, females
show a higher potential to adapt but males show a higher potential to be
more robust to changes in temperature due to overall higher courtship
activity.