Data from: Prior information and social experience influence male reproductive decisions

Increasing attention has focused on understanding how past experiences can influence and explain variation in mating preferences among individuals. We examined how previous social experiences affected courtship preferences in <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i> by exposing individual males to different frequency distributions of high and low-quality (HQ and LQ) females and by allowing them to copulate with either a HQ or LQ mate. For a male, a large female represents a high quality mate while a small female is a low quality mate. We subsequently quantified the courtship behavior of these individuals in the presence of one HQ and one LQ female. Two aspects of male courtship behavior were significantly influenced by prior experience. Males previously exposed to a population of 75% HQ females more often initially courted the HQ than LQ female and more strongly biased overall courtship activity towards the HQ female compared to males previously exposed to a population of 25% HQ females. Furthermore, for some males, the type of female a male mated with in the experience phase influenced the type of female he first courted in the test phase: males that experienced a population containing only 25% HQ females and who mated with a LQ female in the experience phase, more often courted the LQ female first in the test phase while all other males biased courtship towards the HQ female. Our results indicate that information gained about the relative abundance of mate quality types and previous mating experience can affect future mating behavior.

学界日益关注如何借助过往经历，阐释个体间交配偏好的差异。本研究以黑腹果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）为实验对象，通过将单个雄性果蝇暴露于高品质（HQ）与低品质（LQ）雌蝇占比不同的种群环境，并允许其与高品质或低品质雌蝇交配，探究既往社会经历对其求偶偏好的影响。对于雄性果蝇而言，体型较大的雌蝇为高品质配偶，体型较小的则为低品质配偶。后续，我们在同时存在一只高品质雌蝇与一只低品质雌蝇的环境中，量化了这些雄性果蝇的求偶行为。雄性果蝇的两项求偶行为特征显著受既往经历调控：相较于此前暴露于高品质雌蝇占比25%种群的雄性，曾暴露于75%高品质雌蝇种群的雄性，其初始求偶对象更倾向于高品质雌蝇，且整体求偶活动对高品质雌蝇的偏向性更强。此外，部分雄性在实验经历阶段所交配的雌蝇类型，会影响其在测试阶段的初始求偶对象：仅暴露于高品质雌蝇占比25%种群、且在经历阶段与低品质雌蝇交配的雄性，在测试阶段更倾向于首先向低品质雌蝇求偶；而其余所有雄性的求偶行为均偏向高品质雌蝇。本研究结果表明，关于配偶质量类型相对丰度的信息，以及既往交配经历，均可影响个体后续的交配行为。