DOI: 10.5061/dryad.zpc866tfp
title: Is variation in female aggressiveness across Drosophila species associated with reproductive potential?

description: Aggression is a key determinant of fitness in many species, mediating
 access to mates, food, and breeding sites. Variation in intrasexual
 aggression across species is likely driven by variation in resource
 availability and distribution. While males primarily compete over access
 to mates, females are likely to compete over resources to maximize
 offspring quantity and/or quality, such as food or breeding sites. To
 date, however, most studies have focused on male aggression, and we know
 little about drivers of female aggression across species. To investigate
 potential reproductive drivers of female aggression, we tested the
 relationship between three reproductive traits and aggression in eight
 Drosophila species. Using machine learning classifiers developed for D.
 melanogaster, we quantified aggressive behaviours displayed in the
 presence of yeast for mated and unmated females. We found that female
 aggression was correlated with ovariole number across species, suggesting
 that females that lay more eggs are more aggressive. A need for resources
 for egg production or oviposition sites may therefore be drivers of female
 aggression, though other potential hypotheses are discussed.
description: This dataset was collected through experiments conducted at
 Oxford University.  Sets of flies were video recorded and the data were
 extracted by first tracking the flies using the Caltech Fly Tracker.
 Tracking was exported to JAABA for using supervised machine learning to
 use classifiers for female aggression. Data were subsequently analyzed in
 R.
description: # Is variation in female aggressiveness across Drosophila species
 associated with reproductive potential?
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zpc866tfp](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zpc866tfp) The dataset and code are the result of experiments in which we measured the amount of aggression in eight species of *Drosophila*. Briefly, mated or virgin females were place in pairs in an arena with yeast. The number of headbutts and fencing events were scored using machine learning. In addition we obtained data from the literature as well as new data on each species including ovariole number, sperm size, body size, and remating propensity. We find variation in the aggression levels of the species with most decreasing in aggression after mating. Aggression levels are correlated with ovariole number and sperm size. The species examined were *Drosophila hydei*, *D. willistoni*, *D. nebulosa*, *D. sturtevanti*, *D. saltans*, *D. ananassae*, *D. bipectinata*, and *D. pseudoobscura.* ## Description of the data and file structure *Pr_tree.txt* – A text file containing a rooted phylogenetic tree with all 8 species, 7 internal nodes and branch lengths. *All_species.csv* – a CSV file containing behavioral data *All_species_metadata.txt* – a text file containing the metadata information for *All_species.csv* *Traits_phylo.csv* – a CSV file containing mean values for each species for use in phylogenetic analyses *Traits_phylo_metadata.txt* – a text file containing the metadata information for *Traits_phylo2a.csv* *Ground_truthing.csv* – a CSV file containing data from ground-truthing videos for visualization *Ground_truthing_metadata.txt* – a text file containing the metadata information for *Ground_truthing.csv* *Distance*.*csv* – a CSV file containing data on distance between individuals within arenas generated by JAABAPlot *Distance_metadata*.*txt* – a text file containing the metadata information for *Distance*.*csv* *neb_corr2.csv* - a CSV file containing data on the performance of the *Drosophila nebulosa* wing behavior *neb_corr2_metadata.tx*t- a text file containing the metadata information for *neb_corr2.csv* NA - Not applicable ## Code/Software Included is the R code in the file *Analysis_and_figure code revised.Rmd* The code is annotated with instructions.