THE ROLE OF MULTILEVEL SELECTION IN THE EVOLUTION OF SEXUAL CONFLICT IN THE WATER STRIDER AQUARIUS REMIGIS

摘要: In evolution, exploitative strategies often create a paradox in which the most successful individual strategy "within" group is also detrimental "for" group, potentially resulting extinction. With regard to sexual conflict, overexploitation of females by harmful males can yield similar consequences. Despite these evolutionary implications, little research has addressed why conflict does not ultimately drive populations One possibility that groups experiencing less are more productive than with greater conflict. However, studies conducted single isolated disregarding potential for selection among groups. We observed Aquarius remigis water striders naturalistic multigroup pool individuals could freely disperse The free movement generated variation aggression and sex-ratio groups, thereby increasing importance between-group compared within-group selection. Females dispersed away from local aggression, creating favorable mating environments less-aggressive males. Furthermore, use contextual analysis revealed male positively predicted fitness whereas at level negatively fitness, empirically demonstrating between levels acting on aggression.