Artículos de revistas
Sexual ornaments reveal the strength of melanization immune response and for longevity of male paper wasps
Fecha
2018-08-01Registro en:
Journal Of Insect Physiology. Oxford: Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd, v. 109, p. 163-168, 2018.
0022-1910
10.1016/j.jinsphys.2018.06.002
WOS:000442704600019
WOS000442704600019.pdf
Autor
Universidade de São Paulo (USP)
Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV)
Univ Turku
Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
Institución
Resumen
It has been recently suggested that female mate choice, based on sexually selected ornaments, is an important component of social wasps' reproductive biology. The correlates of male ornaments that could be of a female's interest, however, remain to be investigated. Males of the Neotropical paper wasp Polistes simillimus have sexually dimorphic melanin-based black spots on their faces. In this species, male spots work like sexual ornaments, as it has been experimentally demonstrated that females prefer sexual partners with a higher proportion of black pigment on their faces. We have shown that, under laboratory conditions, male sexual ornamentation positively predicts the strength of the melanization immune response and longevity. Therefore, in P. simillimus, melanin-based facial patterns (ornaments) seem to be honest indicators of male quality.