data for: Variation in thermal courtship activity curves across populations, sexes and individuals. J. Evol. Biol.

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 terms of the environmental conditions under which they actively engage in courtship. We describe variation in individual thermal courtship activity curves in the treehopper Enchenopa binotata; these curves describe how courtship activity changes with environmental temperature. 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 various aspects of the resulting thermal courtship activity curves, including the temperature of peak activity among other curve traits. 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 in aspects of courtship activity curves that describe 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 predict patterns of repeatability. These results suggest that thermal variation could alter the dynamics of mate competition, and that males and females 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.