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Sex allocation theory for simultaneous hermaphrodites has focused primarily on the effects of sperm competition, but the role of mate choice has so far been neglected. We present a model to study the coevolution of cryptic female choice and sex allocation in simultaneous hermaphrodites. We show that the mechanism of cryptic female choice has a strong effect on the evolutionary outcome: if individuals remove a fixed proportion of less-preferred sperm, the optimal sex allocation is more female biased (i.e. more biased towards egg production) than without cryptic female choice; conversely, if a fixed amount of sperm is removed, sex allocation is less female-biased than without cryptic female choice, and can easily become male biased (i.e. biased towards sperm production). Under male-biased sex allocation, hermaphroditism can become unstable and the population can split into pure males and hermaphrodites with a female-biased allocation. We discuss the idea that the evolution of sex allocation may depend on the outcome of sexual conflict over the fate of received sperm: the sperm donor may attempt to manipulate or by-pass cryptic female choice and the sperm recipient is expected to resist such manipulation. We conclude that cryptic female choice can have a strong influence on sex allocation in simultaneous hermaphrodites and strongly encourage empirical work on this question.

The effect of cryptic female choice on sex allocation in simultaneous hermaphrodites