Female choice in damselflies and dragonflies

Abstract

Odonates have been frequently labeled as a taxa where males control female’s mating and fertilization decisions. Contrary to this position, in our contribution, we review instances where females can actually show choice of mates. Previous to mating, possible selected male traits are wing pigmentation, ability to defend oviposition sites, body color, and temperature. Females may assess male stimulation during copulation, responding via sperm ejection of previous males’ sperm. Benefits females may derive from choosing males that can affect offspring are as follows: An increased ability to withstand pathogen infections (for both male and female offspring) or ability to stimulate, attractiveness, and fighting ability (for male offspring only). Finally, we discuss that even for traits that clearly seem to control female reproductive decisions, i.e., abdominal claspers, there is no conclusive evidence that shows that they have evolved and are maintained via male-male competition. Our review thus emphasizes that we are far from admitting that females have little or no reproductive control in this taxa.