DOI: 10.5061/dryad.7sqv9s4z7
title: Sexually antagonistic coevolution of the male nuptial gift and female feeding behaviour in decorated crickets

description: The evolution of nuptial gifts has traditionally been considered a
 harmonious affair, providing benefits to both mating partners. There is
 growing evidence, however, that receiving a nuptial gift can be actively
 detrimental to the female. In decorated crickets (Gryllodes sigillatus),
 males produce a gelatinous spermatophylax that enhances sperm transfer but
 provides little nutritional benefit and hinders female post-copulatory
 mate choice. Here, we examine the sexually antagonistic coevolution of the
 spermatophylax and the female feeding response to this gift in G.
 sigillatus maintained in experimental populations with either a
 male-biased or female-biased adult sex ratio. After 25 generations, males
 evolving in male-biased populations produced heavier spermatophylaxes with
 a more manipulative combination of free amino acids than those evolving in
 female-biased populations. Moreover, when the spermatophylax originated
 from the same selection regime, females evolving in male-biased
 populations always had shorter feeding durations than those evolving in
 female-biased populations indicating the evolution of greater resistance.
 Across populations, female feeding duration increased with the mass and
 manipulative combination of free amino acids in the spermatophylax
 suggesting sexually antagonistic coevolution. Collectively, our work
 demonstrates a key role for interlocus sexual conflict and sexually
 antagonistic coevolution in the mating system of G. sigillatus.
description: We manipulated the intensity of interlocus sexual conflict in
 replicate experimental population by manipulating the adult sex ratio to
 be either male -biased (increased conflict) or female-biased (reduced
 conflict). This was done for 25 generations of evolution. We then measured
 the manipulative properties of the male nuptial gift (the spermatophylax)
 in these populations (spermatophylax dry mass and amino acid composition),
 as well as female feeding duration on these gifts (as a measure of
 resistance to manipulation). We present the raw data and population mean
 data for these traits. Spermatophylax dry mass was measured using an
 electronic balance. Spermatophylax amino acid composition was measured
 using GC-MS. Female feeding behaviour was measured in behavioural
 assays.
description: Data is presented in Microsoft Excel.
description: # Sexually antagonistic coevolution of the male nuptial gift and female
 feeding behaviour in decorated crickets We subjected replicated
 populations of decorated crickets to different regimes of interlocus
 sexual conflict by altering the adult sex ratio to be male-biased
 (increased conflict) or female-biased (reduced conflict). After 25
 generations of experimental evolution we measured how manipulative the
 nuptial gifts produced by males (the spermatophylax) were.
 Manipulativeness of the gift is measured by dry mass (measured using an
 electronic balance) and amino acid composition (measured by GC-MS). We
 also measured female resistance in these populations as the time the
 female spent feeding on this gift (through behavioural observations). ##
 Description of the data and file structure Microsoft Excel is required to
 open the data files. We have uploaded 3 files: named
 "Dryad_Spermatophylax data_raw", "Dryad_Feeding
 data_raw" and "Dryad_mean spermatophylax and feeding data".
 "Dryad_Spermatophylax data_raw" contains all of the raw data on
 how manipulative the nuptial gift is from the replicate populations. The
 first column "Selection regime" describes whether the population
 had a male-biased or female-biased adult sex ratio, the second column
 "Replicate" describes the replicate population (one to six) and
 the third column "Male SPHYLAX" is an ID for the male that the
 spermatophylax was taken from. The next 19 columns is the log10 amount of
 free amino acids in the spermatophylax. The naming of these columns used
 the conventional abbreviation for these free amino acids and is provided
 in the manuscript text. The columns labelled "DF1" and
 "DF1" are discriminant functions derived from these amino acids
 to determine how populations with alternate selection regimes have
 diverged. The column "SPHYLAX dry weight (mg)" provides the dry
 weight of spermatophylaxes and the column named " Manipulation
 score" provides the multivariate score of how manipulative the free
 amino acids is to the female (full details on how this is calculated is
 provided in the manuscript text). "Dryad_Feeding data_raw"
 provides the raw feeding data of females from each population.
 "Selection regime" and "Replicate" columns are as
 described for "Dryad_Spermatophylax data_raw". "SPHYLAX
 origin" describes the population origin of the nuptial gift presented
 to female - being either from their "own" population or
 "crossed" from the same replicate population experiencing the
 opposite selection regime. " ID" provides the unique identity of
 females and "Feeding duration (secs)" provides the amount of
 time the female fed on the gift (in seconds). "Dryad_mean
 spermatophylax and feeding data" provides the mean data for each of
 the male manipulation measured and female feeding time taken from the
 above two data sets. "Selection regime" and
 "Replicate" are the same as the two above files. "Mean
 SPHYLAX dry weight" and "Mean manipulation score" are the
 mean of the data for each replicate population provided in
 "Dryad_Spermatophylax data_raw". "Mean feeding duration_own
 population (secs)" and "Mean feeding duration_crossed population
 (secs)" is the mean feeding time of females when recieving a gift
 from their own population or crossed from the opposite selection regime,
 respectively. These mean estimates come from "Dryad_Feeding
 data_raw". ## Sharing/Access information Links to other publicly
 accessible locations of the data: The data contained on Dryad will be also
 be made publically available via the Research Data Management System at
 Western Sydney University. Data was derived from the following sources:
 All uploaded data has been collected from experiments conducted by the
 authors. ## Code/Software No code is provided. All analyses were conducted
 using IBM SPSS (version 29.0.0.0).