BUSCADOR RECOLECTA

Beetle Condition: behaviour and fitness data This is the data for the manuscript Are females in good condition better able to cope with costly males? Data was collected by MIC. All methods are described in the associated manuscript. Column headings are described in the excel spreadsheet. BeetleCondition.xlsx, The costs of mating for a female might depend on both her phenotype and that of her mate. Sexually antagonistic male traits that negatively affect females are often condition-dependent, so a male’s rearing environment can affect the costs he imposes on his mate. Likewise, a female’s ability to resist male-imposed costs might be condition-dependent. We experimentally manipulated female and male body condition in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus by rearing larvae on a good or poor quality diet. We then tested whether the cost of mating for a female (measured as copulation behaviors associated with sexual conflict as well as her fecundity and survival) depended on her and/or her mate’s body condition. As expected, females in better condition laid more eggs and lived longer, indicating higher fitness. More interestingly, females that mated with males in better condition had shorter copulations and started to kick sooner. Both results are potentially indicative of greater sexual conflict. We suggest that these changes in mating behavior might be driven by the higher toxicity of ejaculates of males that are in better condition. Crucially, however, the lack of any interaction between male and female condition for the variables measured suggests that any increase in the costs of mating with a male in better condition is not ameliorated by the female’s own condition., Peer reviewed

F0 File containing Mothers' IDs, lifetime reprodutive success (LRS) and lifespan F1_females Daughters' lifetime reproductive success (LRS) and lifespan. F2_females Granddaughters' lifetime reproductive success (LRS) and lifespan F1_males Data for sons' lifespan (age) F2_males Grandsons' age (lifespan), Mating bears large costs to females, especially in species with high levels of sexual conflict over mating rates. Given the direct costs to females associated with multiple mating, which include reductions in lifespan and lifetime reproductive success, past research focused on identifying potential indirect benefits (through increases in offspring fitness) that females may accrue. Far less attention has been given to understanding how costs of sexual interactions to females may span across generations. Hence, little is known about the transgenerational implications of variation in mating rates, and net consequences of maternal sexual activities across generations. Using the seed beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus, a model system for the study of sexual conflict, we look at the effects of mating with multiple males versus a single male, and tease apart effects due to sexual harassment and those due to mating per se, over three generations. We show that across generations, harassed females suffer a severe decline in fitness compared to non-harassed females, while multiply mated females showed no difference in net fitness compared to singly mated females. Overall, it appears that the transgenerational benefits of multiple mating counteract but do not exceed the direct costs of harassment. Our study highlights the importance of examining transgenerational effects from an inclusive (looking at both indirect benefits but also costs) perspective, and the need to investigate transgenerational effects across several generations if we are to fully understand the consequences of sexual interactions, sexual conflict evolution, and the interplay of sexual conflict and multi-generational costs and benefits., Peer reviewed