21 - Sexual conflict and the evolution of mating systems

Summary

ABSTRACT

We review mating–systems theory and conflict theory and apply them to the analysis of intrasexual and intersexual conflicts. We distinguish three types of sexual interaction, persuasive, coercive, and forcing, that are used by members of each sex to gain control over fertilization and reproductive resources, and we discuss the nature of male–male, female–female and intersexual interactions with respect to these types of behavior. The mating sequence from pair formation to the end of parental care provides the context for analyzing sexual conflict and confluence of interest; events during any given stage in the sequence may affect the dynamics of other events. We suggest that three main sets of variables influence the evolution of mating systems: (1) resource and mate distributions; (2) the presence and extent of transferrable genetic and material benefits; and (3) the degree of control exerted by each sex over events at different stages in the mating sequence. The former two sets of variables are more or less predictable from ecology, demography and life–history adaptations not directly related to mating behavior; the latter is intimately related to the first two, but should often be unpredictable owing to the idiosyncracies of lineage–specific events.

INTRODUCTION

Insects and arachnids display a diversity of reproductive strategies unparalleled among animals; this diversity has put research on these creatures at the forefront of the study of animal mating systems (Blum and Blum 1979; Thornhill and Alcock 1983; Gwynne and Morris 1983; Smith 1984).