Lifetime Reproductive Success and the Opportunity for Selection in a Nonterritorial Damselfly (Odonata: Coenagrionidae)

Abstract

Major components of male and female lifetime reproductive success (LRS) were quantified for a damselfly that exhibits "scramble competition" for mates. The opportunity for selection on male reproduction was potentially 2.9 times that for females. Differential fertility/clutch and survivorship each accounted for about half of the total variation in female reproductive success. Variation in fertilization efficiency accounted for 7% of the total opportunity for selection on males. Although differences in survivorship and mating efficiency each contributed to about a third of the total opportunity for selection on male reproduction, both components appeared to be influenced by random factors. Survivorship was age-independent, and the mating distributions among males with equal mating opportunities were indistinguishable from those expected if matings were random with respect to male phenotype. Because the proportion of the standardized variance (I) in LRS that was attributed to sexual selection depended on the way the selective episodes were defined, the sample of individuals included in the partitioning analysis, and the degree of sexual selection on mated males that could be detected, may results caution against drawing conclusions about the dynamics of sexual selection on populations based on a superficial comparison of I values.