Lifetime mating success of male fruitflies (Drosophila melanogaster) is related to their size

Abstract

Abstract The study used a laboratory population of fruitflies, which showed considerable variance for size, associated with adult emergence at different times after the introduction of food sources to a population cage. Two experiments showed that larger males had higher lifetime mating success than smaller males because (a) for a given level of sexual activity (number of females inseminated) they had higher longevity than smaller males and (b) they had higher age-specific competitive mating success than smaller males. Two factors may have contributed to the higher competitive mating success of the larger males: (a) in paired encounters larger males were successful in aggressive interactions with smaller males and (b) larger males had faster mating speeds than smaller males when tested singly with single virgin females. The role of female preference in mediating variation in male mating success was not investigated.