DOI: 10.5061/dryad.b8gtht7j5
title: Data from: Male size does not affect the strength of male mate choice for high-quality females in Drosophila melanogaster

description: Theory predicts that the strength of male mate choice should vary
 depending on male quality when higher-quality males receive greater
 fitness benefits from being choosy. This pattern extends to differences in
 male body size, with larger males often having stronger pre- and
 post-copulatory preferences than smaller males.We sought to determine
 whether large males and small males differ in the strength (or direction)
 of their preference for large, high-fecundity females using the fruit fly,
 Drosophila melanogaster. We measured male courtship preferences and mating
 duration to show that male body size had no impact on the strength of male
 mate choice; all males, regardless of their size, had equally strong
 preferences for large females. To understand the selective pressures
 shaping male mate choice in males of different sizes, we also measured the
 fitness benefits associated with preferring large females for both large
 and small males. Male body size did not affect the benefits that males
 received: large and small males were equally successful at mating with
 large females, received the same direct fitness benefits from mating with
 large females, and showed similar competitive fertilization success with
 large females. These findings provide insight into why the strength of
 male mate choice was not affected by male body size in this system. Our
 study highlights the importance of evaluating the benefits and costs of
 male mate choice across multiple males to predict when differences in male
 mate choice should occur.
description: # Data from: Male size does not affect the strength of male mate choice
 for high-quality females in Drosophila melanogaster ## Authors Avigayil
 Lev and Alison Pischedda\* Department of Biology, Barnard College
 \*apischedda@barnard.edu ## Description of the data and file structure
 MaleSizesMMCB1.csv Male size data for Block 1 of the Male Mate Choice
 Trials. Data are displayed in Figure S1a. * “Sieve Hole Diameter” = sieve
 hole diameter (in ?m) for the 12 sieves used for size sorting * “Total #
 Males” = the total number of males found within each sieve after size
 sorting * “# Selected Males” = the number of males from each sieve
 selected for this experiment. Blank cells indicate that males were not
 selected from the corresponding sieves. * “Selected Male Size” = whether
 the selected males were used as large or small males for this experiment.
 Blank cells indicate that males were not selected from the corresponding
 sieves. MaleSizesMMCB2.csv Male size data for Block 2 of the Male Mate
 Choice Trials. Data are displayed in Figure S1b. * “Sieve Hole Diameter” =
 sieve hole diameter (in ?m) for the 12 sieves used for size sorting *
 “Total # Males” = the total number of males found within each sieve after
 size sorting. * “# Selected Males” = the number of males from each sieve
 selected for this experiment. Blank cells indicate that males were not
 selected from the corresponding sieves. * “Selected Male Size” = whether
 the selected males were used as large or small males for this experiment.
 Blank cells indicate that males were not selected from the corresponding
 sieves. MaleSizesFecundity.csv Male size data for the Female Fecundity
 Experiment. Data are displayed in Figure S1c. * “Sieve Hole Diameter” =
 sieve hole diameter (in ?m) for the 12 sieves used for size sorting *
 “Total # Males” = the total number of males found within each sieve after
 size sorting * “# Selected Males” = the number of males from each sieve
 selected for this experiment. Blank cells indicate that males were not
 selected from the corresponding sieves. * “Selected Male Size” = whether
 the selected males were used as large or small males for this experiment.
 Blank cells indicate that males were not selected from the corresponding
 sieves. MaleSizesRemating.csv Male size data for the LHm males collected
 for the Remating Experiment. Data are displayed in Figure S1d. * “Sieve
 Hole Diameter” = sieve hole diameter (in ?m) for the 12 sieves used for
 size sorting * “Total # Males” = the total number of males found within
 each sieve after size sorting * “# Selected Males” = the number of males
 from each sieve selected for this experiment. Blank cells indicate that
 males were not selected from the corresponding sieves. * “Selected Male
 Size” = whether the selected males were used as large or small males for
 this experiment. Blank cells indicate that males were not selected from
 the corresponding sieves. MaleSizesRematingbw.csv Male size data for the
 LHm-bw competitor males used in the Remating Experiment. Data are
 displayed in Figure S1e. * “Sieve Hole Diameter” = sieve hole diameter (in
 ?m) for the 12 sieves used for size sorting * “Total # Males” = the total
 number of males found within each sieve after size sorting * “# Selected
 Competitor Males” = the number of males from each sieve to be used as
 competitors for this experiment. Blank cells indicate that males were not
 selected from the corresponding sieves. MaleSizesLarvDensity.csv Male size
 data for a set of Large and Small LHm males created from the larval
 density manipulations used for our experiments. * “Sieve Hole Diameter” =
 sieve hole diameter (in ?m) for the 18 sieves used for size sorting *
 “Large Males” = the number of males from the Large treatment found within
 each sieve after size sorting * “Small Males” = the number of males from
 the Small treatment found within each sieve after size sorting
 bwFemaleSizes.csv Female size data for a set of Large and Small LHm-bw
 females created from the larval density manipulations used for our
 experiments. * “Sieve Hole Diameter” = sieve hole diameter (in ?m) for the
 16 sieves used for size sorting * “Large Females” = the number of females
 from the Large treatment found within each sieve after size sorting *
 “Small Females” = the number of females from the Small treatment found
 within each sieve after size sorting CourtshipEffort.csv Courtship effort
 data from the Male Mate Choice Trials. Data are displayed in Figure 2a. *
 “Block” = experimental block (“B1” = Block 1, “B2” = Block 2) * “Set” =
 first or second set of observations that occurred within each block (“S1”
 = Set 1, “S2” = Set 2) * “Observer” = observer who collected the courtship
 data * “Male Size” = size of the courting male (“L” = large, “S” = small)
 * “Courtship Effort” = raw courtship effort data * “Log Courtship Effort”
 = log transformed courtship effort data PreferenceIndex.csv Preference
 index (PI) data from the Male Mate Choice Trials. Data are displayed in
 Figure 2b. * “Block” = experimental block (“B1” = Block 1, “B2” = Block 2)
 * “Set” = first or second set of observations that occurred within each
 block (“S1” = Set 1, “S2” = Set 2) * “Observer” = observer who collected
 the courtship data * “Male Size” = size of the courting male (“L” = large,
 “S” = small) * “PI” = preference index data MatingData.csv Mating Success
 data, Size of female mated data, and courtship threshold to mate data from
 the Male Mate Choice Trials. Mating success and size of female mated data
 are reported in the manuscript text, courtship threshold to mate data are
 displayed in Figure 3a. * “Block” = experimental block (“B1” = Block 1,
 “B2” = Block 2) * “Set” = first or second set of observations that
 occurred within each block (“S1” = Set 1, “S2” = Set 2) * “Observer” =
 observer who collected the courtship data * “MaleSize” = size of the male
 (“L” = large, “S” = small) * “MatingSuccess” = whether or not the male
 mated during the male mate choice trial (1 = male mated, 0 = male did not
 mate) * “SizeFemMatedCAT” = for males that did mate, the size of the
 female mated. This is coded as a categorical variable (“L” = large, “S” =
 small) for the courtship threshold to mate analysis. If blank, the male
 did not mate. * “SizeFemMatedBIN” = for males that did mate, the size of
 the female mated. This is coded as a binary variable (1 = large, 0 =
 small) for the size of female mated analysis. If blank, the male did not
 mate. * “CourtshipThreshold” = courtship threshold data. If blank, the
 male did not mate. MatingDuration.csv Mating duration data from the Male
 Mate Choice Trials. Data are displayed in Figure 3b. * “Block” =
 experimental block (“B1” = Block 1, “B2” = Block 2) * “Set” = first or
 second set of observations that occurred within each block (“S1” = Set 1,
 “S2” = Set 2) * “Observer” = observer who collected the courtship data *
 “Male Size” = size of the male (“L” = large, “S” = small) * “Female Size”
 = size of the female mated (“L” = large, “S” = small), if blank the male
 did not mate. * “Mating Duration” = mating duration data in minutes. If
 blank the male did not mate. FemaleFecundity.csv Fecundity data from the
 Female Fecundity Experiment. Data are displayed in Figure 4. * “MaleSize”
 = size of the male the female mated with (“L” = large, “S” = small) *
 “FemaleSize” = size of the female (“L” = large, “S” = small) * “Fecundity”
 = total number of offspring produced by the female. If blank, no fecundity
 data was recorded (either the male did not mate or the female died/was
 lost). FemaleRemating.csv Female remating data from the Female Remating
 Experiment. Data for small females are displayed in Figure 5b. * “Male
 Size” = size of the experimental male that the female mated with first
 (“L” = large, “S” = small) * “Female Size” = size of the female (“L” =
 large, “S” = small) * “Remate?” = whether or not the female remated with
 the competitor male (“Y” = yes, “N” = no) LFRematingP1.csv P1 data for the
 large females that remated during the Female Remating Experiment. Data are
 displayed in Figure 5a. * “MaleSize” = size of the experimental male that
 the female mated with first (“L” = large, “S” = small) * “Female Size” =
 size of the female (“L” = large, “S” = small) * “OLRE” = an
 observation-level random effect added to reduce overdispersion * “RedOff”
 = the number of red-eyed offspring the female produced (i.e., offspring
 sired by the experimental male that mated the female first) * “BwOff” =
 the number of brown-eyed offspring the female produced (i.e., offspring
 sired by the bw competitor male that mated the female second) ##
 Sharing/Access information Links to other publicly accessible locations of
 the data: * N/A Data was derived from the following sources: * N/A ##
 Code/Software JMP logs for mating duration analysis All analysis performed
 using JMP 17. CourtshipEffortJMPlog.rtf Output log containing the JMP
 script for the ANOVA used to analyze the courtship effort data in
 CourtshipEffort.csv PreferenceIndexJMPlogs.rtf Output logs containing the
 JMP scripts for the following analyses using the preference index data in
 PreferenceIndex.csv: i) the Wilcoxon/Kruskal-Wallis tests testing for an
 effect of Observer and Block on preference index (PI) ii) the Wilcoxon
 tests testing for an effect of observation Set within Block on PI iii) the
 1-way Wilcoxon tests testing whether PIs are significantly different from
 0 for large and small males iv) The Kruskal-Wallis test comparing PIs
 between large and small males MatingDurationJMPlog.rtf Output log
 containing the JMP script for the ANOVA used to analyze the mating
 duration data in MatingDuration.csv FemaleRematingJMPlogs.rtf Output logs
 containing the JMP scripts for the following analyses using the remating
 data in FemaleRemating.csv: i) the Pearson’s Chi Square test comparing
 remating rates for large and small female ii) the Pearson’s Chi Square
 test comparing remating rates for small females that mated with a large or
 small male first R scripts for GLMs/GLMMs used to analyze mating success,
 size of female mated, courtship threshold to mate, fecundity, and P1 data
 All analyses performed using R 4.2.2 and the following packages: glmmTMB
 1.1.5 Car 3.1-2 MatingData.R R code for the following analyses: * the
 binomial GLM used to analyze mating success data in MatingData.csv * the
 binomial GLM used to analyze the data recording the size of the female
 mated in MatingData.csv * the negative binomial GLMM used to analyze the
 courtship threshold to mate data in MatingData.csv FemaleFecundity.R R
 code for the negative binomial GML used to analyze the fecundity data in
 FemaleFecundity.csv LFRematingP1.R R code for the binomial GLMM used to
 analyze P1 data in LFRematingP1.csv