Reproductive interference explains persistence of aggression between species

Interspecific territoriality occurs when individuals of different species fight over space, and may arise spontaneously when populations of closely related territorial species first come into contact. But defence of space is costly, and unless the benefits of excluding heterospecifics exceed the costs, natural selection should favour divergence in competitor recognition until the species no longer interact aggressively. Ordinarily males of different species do not compete for mates, but when males cannot distinguish females of sympatric species, females may effectively become a shared resource. We model how reproductive interference caused by undiscriminating males can prevent interspecific divergence, or even cause convergence, in traits used to recognize competitors. We then test the model in a genus of visually orienting insects and show that, as predicted by the model, differences between species pairs in the level of reproductive interference, which is causally related to species d...种间领地行为（Interspecific territoriality）指不同物种的个体为争夺空间而发生争斗，当亲缘关系密切的领地性物种种群首次产生接触时，该行为可能自发出现。但空间防御需付出代价，除非排除异种个体所带来的收益高于成本，否则自然选择应会倾向于推动竞争者识别特征发生分化，直至物种间不再产生攻击性互动。通常而言，不同物种的雄性不会为配偶展开竞争，但当雄性无法区分同域分布物种（sympatric species）的雌性时，雌性实际上会成为共享资源。我们构建模型分析缺乏辨别能力的雄性所引发的生殖干扰（reproductive interference），如何能够阻碍竞争者识别特征的种间分化，甚至导致该特征出现趋同演化。随后我们在一类依靠视觉定向的昆虫属中对该模型进行了检验，结果正如模型所预测的那样，物种对间的生殖干扰水平差异与物种……