4 Works
Data from: Sexual selection on cuticular hydrocarbons of male sagebrush crickets in the wild
Sandra Steiger, Geoffrey D. Ower, Johannes Stökl, Christopher Mitchell, John Hunt, Scott K. Sakaluk & J. Stokl
Cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) play an essential role in mate recognition in insects but the form and intensity of sexual selection on CHCs has only been evaluated in a handful of studies, and never in a natural population. We quantified sexual selection operating on CHCs in a wild population of sagebrush crickets, a species in which nuptial feeding by females imposes an unambiguous phenotypic marker on males. Multivariate selection analysis revealed a saddle-shaped fitness surface, suggesting...
Data from: Investigating the zoonotic origin of the West African Ebola epidemic
Almudena Marí Saéz, Sabrina Weiss, Kathrin Nowak, Vincent Lapeyre, Fee Zimmermann, Ariane Düx, Hjalmar S. Kühl, Moussa Kaba, Sébastien Regnaut, Kevin Merkel, Andreas Sachse, Ursula Thiesen, Lili Villányi, Christophe Boesch, Piotr W. Dabrowski, Aleksandar Radonic, Andreas Nitsche, Siv Aina J. Leendertz, Stefan Petterson, Stephan Becker, Verena Krähling, Emmanuel Couacy-Hymann, Chantal Akoua-Koffi, Natalie Weber, Lars Schaade … & Fabian H. Leendertz
The severe Ebola virus disease epidemic occurring in West Africa stems from a single zoonotic transmission event to a 2-year-old boy in Meliandou, Guinea. We investigated the zoonotic origins of the epidemic using wildlife surveys, interviews, and molecular analyses of bat and environmental samples. We found no evidence for a concurrent outbreak in larger wildlife. Exposure to fruit bats is common in the region, but the index case may have been infected by playing in...
Data from: Acceptance threshold theory can explain occurrence of homosexual behaviour
Katharina C. Engel, Lisa Männer, Manfred Ayasse & Sandra Steiger
Same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB) has been documented in a wide range of animals, but its evolutionary causes are not well understood. Here, we investigated SSB in the light of Reeve's acceptance threshold theory. When recognition is not error-proof, the acceptance threshold used by males to recognize potential mating partners should be flexibly adjusted to maximize the fitness pay-off between the costs of erroneously accepting males and the benefits of accepting females. By manipulating male burying...
Data from: Self-recognition in crickets via on-line processing
Alexandra Capodeanu-Nägler, James Rapkin, Scott K. Sakaluk, John Hunt & Sandra Steiger
Self-referent phenotype matching, the ability of animals to use aspects of their own phenotype as a referent in discrimination decisions, is believed to play a significant role in nepotistic interactions and mate choice in a wide range of taxa [1]. An individual’s ability to assess the similarity between its own phenotype and that of the individuals it encounters can provide a reliable measure of relatedness, thereby facilitating inbreeding avoidance, optimal outbreeding or altruistic behavior towards...
Affiliations
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University of Ulm4
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University of Exeter2
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Illinois State University2
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Max Planck Institute for Ornithology1
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Charité1
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University of Regensburg1
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Robert Koch Institute1
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Philipp University of Marburg1
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Laboratoire National d'Appui au Développement Agricole1
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Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology1