Male age influence on male reproductive success in Drosophila ananassae (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

摘要

Male age influence on male mating success, courtship, mating activities, fecundity, fertility, longevity, percentage of egg-larval hatchability and percentage of larva-adult viability has been studied in Drosophila ananassae. It was noticed that females of D. ananassae were able to discriminate males on the basis of male age and preferred to mate with old-aged males more frequently than younger or middle-aged males using a female choice experiment. Old-aged males significantly mated faster, performedgreater courtship activities, copulated longer and inseminated more females in a given unit of time, showed greater fecundity, fertility, percentage of egg-larval hatchability, percentage of larva-adult viability, and females mated to old-aged males lived shorter than those mated to younger or middle-aged males. Thus in D. ananassae females discriminate males on the basis of age and females mated to old-aged males had significantly greater reproductive success than that of females mated to younger or middle-aged males.