Paternity Testing Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Paternity Testing, including details on accuracy, methods, procedure, dna testing.

No postcopulatory response to inbreeding by male crickets.

Simmons LW, Thomas ML

Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Animal Biology (M092), The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia. lsimmons@cyllene.uwa.edu.au

Previous studies of the cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus have shown a paternity bias towards non-sibling males. Although non-kin-biased paternity could represent a mechanism of postcopulatory inbreeding avoidance by females, evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) models of ejaculate evolution also predict that males should reduce their expenditure on the ejaculate when mating with their sisters. Here we provide a test of these models, finding that male crickets invest equally in matings with full-siblings, half-siblings and non-sibling females. The data suggest that in this species, males and females differ in their response to inbreeding.

Published 6 March 2008 in Biol Lett, 4(2): 183-5.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Paternity Testing Research Today. All Rights Reserved.