Local mate competition with lethal male combat: effects of competitive asymmetry and information availability on a sex ratio game

Testing the local mate competition rule in a quasi-gregarious parasitoid with facultative superparasitism

As an important domain of evolutionary ecology, sex allocation theory well explains the evolution of investment into female versus male offspring. Local mate competition (LMC) is a good predictor of sex allocation, where the optimal sex ratio becomes less female-biased and asymptotically approaches 0.5 as the number of foundresses increases. Parasitoid wasps, with haplodiploid sex determination, offer excellent opportunities to test how organisms manipulate their offspring sex ratio in response to environmental variation, and many species have been proved to allocate sex according to predictions under LMC. When hosts are spatially clustered, as in gregarious species, the mating systems of quasi-gregarious parasitoids meet the essential assumptions (female mating before dispersal) of LMC. However, inconsistent with predictions, in the quasi-gregarious species Anastatus disparis (Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae), a strongly female-biased eclosion sex ratio (0.156 ± 0.018 to 0.185 ± 0.016) was observed as the number of females laying eggs in a patch increased. Superparasitism, in which 44.7% of parasitized hosts contained more than one egg but only one adult emerged from each host, was common in A. disparis. However, the egg sex ratio was determined by microsatellites and likely fit the predictions of LMC theory. Male-biased offspring mortality arising from superparasitism during development likely contributes to the shift from the primary sex ratio predicted under LMC to the observed female-biased eclosion sex ratio. Inconsistent with results in gregarious parasitoids, the role of superparasitism in driving sex ratio shifts in quasi-gregarious parasitoids should be incorporated into LMC-based predictions of sex ratios.

Individual- and group-level sex ratios under local mate competition: consequences of infanticide and reproductive dominance

Extremely female-biased sex ratios of parasitoid wasps in multiple-foundress groups challenges evolutionary theory which predicts diminishing bias as foundress numbers increase. Recent theory based on foundress cooperation has achieved qualitative rather than quantitative success in explaining bias among parasitoids in the genus Sclerodermus. Here, we develop an explanation, expanding the theory of local mate competition, based on the observation that male production seems dominated by some foundresses within groups. Two sex ratio effects arise from such reproductive dominance: an immediate effect via suppression of male production, and a long-term evolutionary response to reproductive skew. We analyze the outcome of these effects at the individual and group level, the latter being more readily observable. Three model scenarios are analyzed: (1) random killing of developing sons in a group by all foundresses, without reproductive skew, (2) the development of reproductive dominance by some foundresses after sex allocation decisions by all foundresses have been implemented, and (3) reproductive dominance within foundress groups before sex allocation decisions are implemented. The 3 scenarios have subtly different implications for sex ratio evolution, with Models 2 and 3 being novel additions to theory, showing how reproductive dominance can alter the outcome of sex ratio evolution. All models match observations in their outcomes better than other recently proposed theory, but Models 2 and 3 are closest to observations in their underlying assumptions. Further, Model 2 shows that differential offspring mortality after parental investment can influence the primary sex ratio even when random with respect to parental and offspring characters, but targeted at entire clutches. The novel models are solved for both diploid and haplodiploid genetic systems, and confirmed with simulations. Overall, these models provide a feasible explanation for the extremely female-biased sex ratios produced by multi-foundress groups and expand the scope of local mate competition theory to consider reproductive dominance.

A solution to a sex ratio puzzle in Melittobia wasps

The puzzling sex ratio behavior of Melittobia wasps has long posed one of the greatest questions in the field of sex allocation. Laboratory experiments have found that, in contrast to the predictions of theory and the behavior of numerous other organisms, Melittobia females do not produce fewer female-biased offspring sex ratios when more females lay eggs on a patch. We solve this puzzle by showing that, in nature, females of Melittobia australica have a sophisticated sex ratio behavior, in which their strategy also depends on whether they have dispersed from the patch where they emerged. When females have not dispersed, they lay eggs with close relatives, which keeps local mate competition high even with multiple females, and therefore, they are selected to produce consistently female-biased sex ratios. Laboratory experiments mimic these conditions. In contrast, when females disperse, they interact with nonrelatives, and thus adjust their sex ratio depending on the number of females laying eggs. Consequently, females appear to use dispersal status as an indirect cue of relatedness and whether they should adjust their sex ratio in response to the number of females laying eggs on the patch.

Mass killing by female soldier larvae is adaptive for the killed male larvae in a polyembryonic wasp

Self-sacrifice is very rare among organisms. Here, we report a new and astonishing case of adaptive self-sacrifice in a polyembryonic parasitic wasp, Copidosoma floridanum. This wasp is unique in terms of its larval cloning and soldier larvae. Male clone larvae have been found to be killed by female soldier larvae, which suggests intersexual conflict between male and female larvae. However, we show here that mass killing is adaptive to all the killed males as well as the female soldiers that have conducted the killing because the killing increases their indirect fitness by promoting the reproduction of their clone sibs. We construct a simple model that shows that the optimal number of surviving males for both male and female larvae is very small but not zero. We then compare this prediction with the field data. These data agree quite well with the model predictions, showing an optimal killing rate of approximately 94-98% of the males in a mixed brood. The underlying mechanism of this mass kill is almost identical to the local competition for mates that occurs in other wasp species. The maternal control of the sex ratio during oviposition, which is well known in other hymenopterans, is impossible in this polyembryonic wasp. Thus, this mass kill is necessary to maximize the fitness of the female killers and male victims, which can be seen as an analogy of programmed cell death in multicellular organisms.

Intrasexually selected weapons

We propose a practical concept that distinguishes the particular kind of weaponry that has evolved to be used in combat between individuals of the same species and sex, which we term intrasexually selected weapons (ISWs). We present a treatise of ISWs in nature, aiming to understand their distinction and evolution from other secondary sex traits, including from 'sexually selected weapons', and from sexually dimorphic and monomorphic weaponry. We focus on the subset of secondary sex traits that are the result of same-sex combat, defined here as ISWs, provide not previously reported evolutionary patterns, and offer hypotheses to answer questions such as: why have only some species evolved weapons to fight for the opposite sex or breeding resources? We examined traits that seem to have evolved as ISWs in the entire animal phylogeny, restricting the classification of ISW to traits that are only present or enlarged in adults of one of the sexes, and are used as weapons during intrasexual fights. Because of the absence of behavioural data and, in many cases, lack of sexually discriminated series from juveniles to adults, we exclude the fossil record from this review. We merge morphological, ontogenetic, and behavioural information, and for the first time thoroughly review the tree of life to identify separate evolution of ISWs. We found that ISWs are only found in bilateral animals, appearing independently in nematodes, various groups of arthropods, and vertebrates. Our review sets a reference point to explore other taxa that we identify with potential ISWs for which behavioural or morphological studies are warranted. We establish that most ISWs come in pairs, are located in or near the head, are endo- or exoskeletal modifications, are overdeveloped structures compared with those found in females, are modified feeding structures and/or locomotor appendages, are most common in terrestrial taxa, are frequently used to guard females, territories, or both, and are also used in signalling displays to deter rivals and/or attract females. We also found that most taxa lack ISWs, that females of only a few species possess better-developed weapons than males, that the cases of independent evolution of ISWs are not evenly distributed across the phylogeny, and that animals possessing the most developed ISWs have non-hunting habits (e.g. herbivores) or are faunivores that prey on very small prey relative to their body size (e.g. insectivores). Bringing together perspectives from studies on a variety of taxa, we conceptualize that there are five ways in which a sexually dimorphic trait, apart from the primary sex traits, can be fixed: sexual selection, fecundity selection, parental role division, differential niche occupation between the sexes, and interference competition. We discuss these trends and the factors involved in the evolution of intrasexually selected weaponry in nature.

Inexplicably female-biased sex ratios in Melittobia wasps

The sex ratio behavior of parasitoid wasps in the genus Melittobia is scandalous. In contrast to the prediction of Hamilton's local mate competition theory, and the behavior of numerous other species, their extremely female-biased sex ratios (1-5% males) change little in response to the number of females that lay eggs on a patch. We examined the mating structure and fitness consequences of adjusting the sex ratio in M. australica and found that (1) the rate of inbreeding did not differ from that expected with random mating within each patch; (2) the fitness of females that produced less female-biased sex ratios (10 or 20% males) was greater than that of females who produced the sex ratio normally observed in M. australica. These results suggest that neither assortative mating nor asymmetrical competition between males can explain the extreme sex ratios. More generally, the finding that the sex ratios produced by females led to a decrease in their fitness suggests that the existing theory fails to capture a key aspect of the natural history of Melittobia, and emphasizes the importance of examining the fitness consequences of different sex ratio strategies, not only whether observed sex ratios correlate with theoretical predictions.

Multi-objective behavioural mechanisms are adopted by foraging animals to achieve several optimality goals simultaneously

1. Animals foraging for resources are under a variety of selective pressures, and separate optimality models have been developed predicting the optimal reproductive strategies they should adopt. 2. In most cases, the proximate behavioural mechanisms adopted to achieve such optimality goals have been identified. This is the case, for example, for optimal patch time and sex allocation in insect parasitoids. However, behaviours modelled within this framework have mainly been studied separately, even though real animals have to optimize some behaviours simultaneously. 3. For this reason, it would be better if proximate behavioural rules were designed to attain several goals simultaneously. Despite their importance, such multi-objective proximate rules remain to be discovered. 4. Based on experiments on insect parasitoids that simultaneously examine their optimal patch time and sex allocation strategies, it is shown here that animals can adopt multi-objective behavioural mechanisms that appear consistent with the two optimal goals simultaneously. 5. Results of computer simulations demonstrate that these behavioural mechanisms are indeed consistent with optimal reproductive strategies and have thus been most likely selected over the course of the evolutionary time.

Virginity and the clutch size behavior of a parasitoid wasp where mothers mate their sons

Theoretical and empirical research on the evolution of clutch size has proved to be an extremely productive area of evolutionary biology. A general prediction is that individuals should produce a smaller number of offspring when resources are more limited, such as when multiple individuals compete for the same resources for their development. However, we expect that the opposite prediction arises with virgin females of haplodiploid species, which are subject to extreme local mate competition. We test the key assumption and predictions of this theory with the parasitoid wasp Melittobia australica. Our data demonstrate that there is a trade-off between the size of the first and subsequent clutches and that virgin females adjust their production of sons according to the mating status (mated or not) of cofounding females. We also found that mated females facultatively change their offspring sex ratio in response to the mating status of cofoundresses. We discuss the potential mechanisms used to recognize the mating status and the implications of our results in the context of the extremely female-biased sex ratios observed across Melittobia species..

Competition between relatives and the evolution of dispersal in a parasitoid wasp

Evolutionary theory predicts that levels of dispersal vary in response to the extent of local competition for resources and the relatedness between potential competitors. Here, we test these predictions by making use of a female dispersal dimorphism in the parasitoid wasp Melittobia australica. We show that there are two distinct female morphs, which differ in morphology, pattern of egg production, and dispersal behaviour. As predicted by theory, we found that greater competition for resources resulted in increased production of dispersing females. In contrast, we did not find support for the prediction that high relatedness between competitors increases the production of dispersing females in Melittobia. Finally, we exploit the close links between the evolutionary processes leading to selection for dispersal and for biased sex ratios to examine whether the pattern of dispersal can help distinguish between competing hypotheses for the lack of sex ratio adjustment in Melittobia.

The continuous public goods game and the evolution of cooperative sex ratios

Some animals, such as Melittobia wasps and surface-living mites, have extremely female-biased sex ratios that cannot be explained by the existing local mate competition (LMC) theories. The restricted production of sons may entail cooperation among mothers, enabling the production of more daughters and avoiding severe competition among sons for insemination access. These unusual examples are characterized by the long-term cohabitation of egg-layers (foundresses) on resource patches and possible contact with oviposited eggs. By applying the logic of mutual policing, we develop a novel game theoretical model for the evolution of cooperation in sex-ratio traits. This is the first attempt to model the evolution of sex ratios based on iterated games. We assumed that foundresses have two abilities to enable mutual policing: they can monitor the sex ratio in the resource patch, and they can punish defectors that produce an overabundance of males. Numerical analysis and evolutionary simulations demonstrate that cooperative low sex ratios can evolve when the number of foundresses per patch is sufficiently small. Our model predicts a slight, but steady increase in oviposition sex ratios with an increase in the number of foundresses, which mimics the phenomenon observed in several animals with extremely female-biased sex ratios. We also discuss the relationship between our model and other models of sex-ratio evolution.

Lethal combat and sex ratio evolution in a parasitoid wasp

Sex allocation theory provides excellent opportunities for testing how behavior and life histories are adjusted in response to environmental variation. One of the most successful areas from this respect is Hamilton's local mate competition theory. As predicted by theory, a large number of animal species have been shown to adjust their offspring sex ratios (proportion male) conditionally, laying less female-biased sex ratios as the number of females that lay eggs on a patch increases. However, recent studies have shown that this predicted pattern is not followed by 2 parasitoid species in the genus Melittobia, which always produce extremely female-biased sex ratios. A possible explanation for this is that males fight fatally and that males produced by the first female to lay eggs on a patch have a competitive advantage over later emerging males. This scenario would negate the advantage of later females producing a less female-biased sex ratio. Here we examine fatal fighting and sex ratio evolution in another species, Melittobia acasta. We show that females of this species also fail to adjust their offspring sex ratio in response to the number of females laying eggs on a patch. We then show that although earlier emerging males do have an advantage in winning fights, this advantage 1) can be reduced by an interaction with body size, with larger males more likely to win fights and 2) only holds for a brief period around the time at which the younger males emerge from their pupae. This suggests that lethal male combat cannot fully explain the lack of sex ratio shift observed in Melittobia species. We discuss alternative explanations.

The evolutionary consequences of plasticity in host-pathogen interactions

Interactions between individuals such as hosts and pathogens are often characterized by substantial phenotypic plasticity. Pathogens sometimes alter their exploitation strategies in response to defensive strategies adopted by their host and vice versa. Nevertheless, most game-theoretic models developed to explain the evolution of pathogen and host characteristics assume that no such plasticity occurs. Allowing for phenotypic plasticity in these models is difficult because one must focus on the evolution of pathogen and host reaction norms, and then allow for the potentially indefinite reciprocal changes in pathogen and host behaviour that occur during an infection as a result of their interacting reaction norms. Here, we begin to address these issues for a simple host-pathogen system in which the pathogen exhibits a level of virulence and the host exhibits a level of immune clearance. We find, quite generally, that plasticity promotes the evolution of higher levels of cooperation, in this case leading to reduced levels of both virulence and clearance.

Modelling information exchange in worker-queen conflict over sex allocation

We investigate the conflict between queen and worker over sex allocation, specifically the allocation of the queen's eggs between workers and reproductives and the allocation of the reproductive eggs between male and female. In contrast to previous models, we allow workers to observe and use information about the strategy of the queen. We consider three conflict models: simultaneous (no information exchange), sequential (a one-way information exchange) and negotiated (an iterated two-way information exchange). We find that the first model produces sex ratios intermediate between the classic queen (1:1) and worker (1:3) optima. The second model, in which the worker has information about the queen's decisions, produces a different result and one that is somewhat counter-intuitive in that the sex ratios are less female-biased than for the other two models, and in fact are often male-biased. The third model predicts sex ratios intermediate between the first two models. We discuss how these findings may shed new light on observed sex allocation patterns in social insects and we suggest some experimental tests.

Evolution of extraordinary female-biased sex ratios: the optimal schedule of sex ratio in local mate competition

Female-biased sex ratio in local mate competition has been well studied both theoretically and experimentally. However, some experimental data show more female-biased sex ratios than the theoretical predictions by Hamilton [1967. Science 156, 477-488] and its descendants. Here we consider the following two effects: (1) lethal male-male combat and (2) time-dependent control (or schedule) of sex ratio. The former is denoted by a male mortality being an increasing function of the number of males. The optimal schedule is analytically obtained as an evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) by using Pontrjagin's maximum principle. As a result, an ESS is a schedule where only males are produced first, then the proportion of females are gradually increased, and finally only females are produced. Total sex ratio (sex ratio averaged over the whole reproduction period) is more female-biased than the Hamilton's result if and only if the two effects work together. The bias is stronger when lethal male combat is severer or a reproduction period is longer. When male-male combat is very severe, the sex ratio can be extraordinary female-biased (less than 5%). The model assumptions and the results generally agree with experimental data on Melittobia wasps in which extraordinary female-biased sex ratio is observed. Our study might provide a new basis for the evolution of female-biased sex ratios in local mate competition.

Sex Ratios under Asymmetrical Local Mate Competition: Theory and a Test with Parasitoid Wasps

Sex ratio theory allows unparalleled opportunities for testing how well animal behavior can be predicted by evolutionary theory. For example, Hamilton's theory of local mate competition (LMC) is well understood and can explain variation in sex allocation across numerous species. This allows more specific predictions to be developed and tested. Here we extend LMC theory to a situation that will be common in a range of species: asymmetrical LMC. Asymmetrical LMC occurs when females lay eggs on a patch asynchronously and male offspring do not disperse, leading to relatively weaker LMC for males emerging from later broods. Varying levels of LMC then lead to varying optimal sex ratios for females, depending on when and where they oviposit. We confirm the assumptions of our theory using the wasp Nasonia vitripennis and then test our predictions. We show that females adjust their offspring sex ratios in the directions predicted, laying different sex ratios on different hosts within a patch. Specifically, there was a less female-biased sex ratio when ovipositing on an unparasitized host if another host on the patch had previously been parasitized and a less female-biased sex ratio on parasitized hosts if females also oviposited on an unparasitized host.

Effects of constrained females on offspring sex ratios ofNasonia vitripennisin relation to local mate competition theory

Empirical studies of how constrained females affect sex ratio are few. Constrained females are those that can produce only sons (e.g., in haplodiploid species, females that have not mated or older females that have used up their sperm). In the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis (Walker, 1836), failure to mate soon after emergence increased the probability of a female being constrained and thus affected sex ratio directly. Local mate competition theory shows that whether a female is constrained can also affect sex ratio indirectly by affecting what sex ratio other females produce. However, this was not the case in N. vitripennis. A female's sex ratio was not significantly different when she was with another young mated female versus a virgin female or an old mated female depleted of sperm. These results suggest that N. vitripennis females may be unable to recognize whether another female is constrained. The increased proportion of sons in response to other females relative to when alone did not persist the day after exposure.