Ecological Entomology (2009) 34, 638-643

Alexei A. Maklakov and Claudia Fricke (2009)
Sexual selection did not contribute to the evolution of male lifespan under curtailed age at reproduction in a seed beetle
Ecological Entomology 34 (5), 638-643
Abstract: 1. Sexual selection is a powerful evolutionary force that is hypothesised to play an important role in the evolution of lifespan. Here we test for the potential contribution of sexual selection to the rapid evolution of male lifespan in replicated laboratory populations of the seed beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus.
2. For 35 generations, newly hatched virgin male beetles from eight different populations were allowed to mate for 24 h and then discarded. Sexual selection was removed in half of these populations by enforcing random monogamy.
3. Classic theory predicts that because of sexual competition, males from sexually selected lines would have higher age-specific mortality rates and shorter lifespan than males from monogamous lines.
4. Alternatively, condition-dependent sexual selection may also favour genes that have positive pleiotropic effects on lifespan and ageing.
5. Males from all eight populations evolved shorter lifespans compared with the source population. However, there was no difference in lifespan between males from populations with or without sexual selection. Thus, sexual selection did not contribute to the evolution of male lifespan despite the fact that such evolution did occur in our study populations.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Callosobruchus maculatus