Multiple mating and female fitness in Drosophila pseudoobscura.

Abstract

Fitness of Drosophila pseudoobscura females allowed to mate over a 2 day period was compared with that of females given lifetime access to males. The females kept with males mated repeatedly. Overall fitness of the remated females under nutritional stress, the product of their longevities and productivities, remained severalfold that of females allowed to mate only for an initial 2 day period. The fitness advantage of remated females provides a powerful selective advantage for repeated mating which must reinforce the sexual selection favoring males who mate repeatedly, and it makes the evolution of multiple mating easier to understand. -from Authors