Mating status-dependent 'choice' in competitive and non-competitive arenas

To maximize their reproductive fitness, females of many polyandrous species should display mating status-dependent choice, where they mate relatively indiscriminately once to ensure reproductive output, and then become choosy and mate preferentially with higher-quality males. Despite this potential contrast in choosiness, most mate choice experiments use virgin females. Here, we tested whether virgin and non-virgin females differ in their choosiness, and then test whether their choices are likely to be adaptive. To do so, we measured the latency to mate and the competitive mating success of male flies from 20 isofemale strains (i.e., males that come from 20 different genetic backgrounds). We hypothesized that male mating success would vary more between strains when non-virgin females were choosing (captured by 'among-M-strain' variance), consistent with the theory that virgin females mate reltively indistriminately. We then performed a series of strain crosses and measured the egg-to-ad..., , # Mating status-dependent 'choice' in competitive and non-competitive arenas

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnxw](10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnxw)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data collected for competitive and non-competitive mating success, egg-to-adult viability, and fitness, for 20 isofemale strains of flies.

### Files and variables

#### File: EAV.csv

**Description:** Egg-to-adult viability data. Strains were crosses in a full factorial design (4 strains per randomised block), and flies from the crosses mated and laid eggs. The eggs and emerging adults were counted.

##### Variables

* block: randomised block (5 blocks, each with 4 isofemale strains)
* Fstrain: the isofemale strain from which the female was derived
* Mstrain: the isofemale strain from which the male was derived
* cross: whether flies used in the cross were from the same isofemale strain (within) or from different strains (between)
* eggs: the number of eggs laid
* adults: the number of adults that e...,