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Correlates of male mating success in two natural populations of the damselfly lschnura graellsii (Odonata: Coenagrionidae)
Author(s) -
CORDERO A.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
ecological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.865
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1365-2311
pISSN - 0307-6946
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2311.1995.tb00450.x
Subject(s) - coenagrionidae , damselfly , biology , odonata , mating , sexual dimorphism , sexual selection , zoology , population , demography , sociology
.1 Two natural populations of Ischnura graellsii were studied in north‐west Spain by means of mark‐release‐recapture techniques. Recaptured males were a random sample of the original marked population with regard to date of marking. At O Rosal a greater proportion of young males than old males disappeared after marking; at Lourizán recaptured males were larger than unrecaptured ones. 2 The number of matings observed in both populations showed great daily variation. Most of the variation is accounted for by climatic variables. Most males (56–65%) and many females (41–45%) were never observed to mate. 3 Male LMS was highly correlated with lifespan in both populations. At O Rosal, male LMS was also positively correlated with body length, and mated males were larger than unmated males. This surprising result for a non‐territorial species was due to the positive correlation between date of marking and size. There was a positive correlation between body size and mobility for males at O Rosal, but mobility was not correlated with male LMS. 4 As predicted by sexual selection theory, the standardized variance in male LMS was greater than in female LMS. Variation in mature lifespan explained 16% of variance in male LMS at Lourizán and 28% at O Rosal.