Exposure to rivals does not affect male mate choice in <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em>

Male-male competition can affect male mate choice in different ways, potentially leading to stronger preferences when males benefit from investing more resources in fewer, but higher-quality matings, or weaker preferences if choosiness could lead to missed mating opportunities. As in many insects, Drosophila melanogaster males show both pre- and postcopulatory preferences for larger, higher-fecundity females. Exposure to rivals alters some aspects of male courtship and mating behavior in this species, but it is unknown whether male mate choice is similarly affected by increased competition. We tested whether perceived competition influenced the strength of male precopulatory and postcopulatory preferences for large females by housing D. melanogaster males with or without rivals before they encountered females that differed in size. Males from both treatments exhibited equally strong courtship preferences for large females and extended matings to a similar degree with large versus small ..., , # Data from: Exposure to rivals does not affect male mate choice in *Drosophila melanogaster* ## Description of the data and file structure **SoloCourt_R.csv** *Data from Experiment 1* “Date” = the date the data were collected “Block” = the corresponding experimental block “Observer” = the observer collecting the data \"Treatment\" = the male experimental treatment (\"Group\" = Rivals treatment, \"Solo\" = No Rivals treatment) “Vial” = the vial label for that male during that block \"CourtStart\" = the minute that courtship was first observed “TotalMinCourt” = the total number of minutes the male spent courting \"MinNotCourt\" = the total number of minutes the male did not court (for males that mated, this only included minutes up to the time that mating began) \"Duration\" = the duration of mating in minutes. If blank, the male did not mate or the data were lost \"TotalUnitsCourt\" = the total courtship units for the male (i.e., TotalMinCourt*2, used to calculate proportion of courtship directed t...,