DOI: 10.5061/dryad.h44j0zpwf
title: Data from: Sexual conflict over mating duration in Drosophila melanogaster

description: Mating duration varies widely between and within species, often lasting
 longer than is necessary for sperm transfer. Prolonged copulations can be
 energetically expensive and take time and resources that could otherwise
 be directed elsewhere, so extended matings likely provide benefits to one
 or both sexes that outweigh these costs. In the fruit fly, Drosophila
 melanogaster, mating duration is primarily under male control and
 continues after sperm transfer has ended. Although there is evidence that
 mating duration may affect fitness-related traits in this system,
 controlled experiments investigating the impacts of naturally occurring
 variation in mating duration on both males and females are lacking. We
 used hemiclonal analysis in D. melanogaster to investigate the
 consequences of prolonged matings for both sexes by mating males from
 long- and short-mating hemiclone lines to females of varying sizes. Males
 with longer mating durations sired a greater proportion of offspring
 (i.e., had higher defensive reproductive success) with small females than
 males with shorter mating durations, indicating that males benefited from
 prolonged matings. In contrast, longer matings were harmful to females, as
 both large and small females had significantly lower fecundity after
 mating with males from long-mating hemiclone lines compared to males from
 short-mating hemiclone lines. Our findings demonstrate that mating
 duration is involved in sexual conflict in D. melanogaster, providing
 insight into the mechanisms maintaining variation in mating duration
 within species.
description: # Data from: Sexual conflict over mating duration in Drosophila
 melanogaster ## Description of the data and file structure
 **HCMD_PropL.csv** *A subset of the data from Freed et al. 2025
 ([https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh2)) measuring the proportion of courtship directed toward the large female for each hemiclone line used in the present study.* “Block” = the experimental block “Observer” = the observer "Clone" = the specific hemiclone line “Vial” = the vial label for that male during that block "UnitsCourtL" = the courtship units directed to the large female by the male "UnitsCourtS" = the courtship units directed to toward the small female by the male "Treatment" = the mating duration treatment (Long or Short) for that hemiclone line **HCMD_CE.csv** *A subset of the data from Freed et al. 2025 ([https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh2)) measuring the courtship effort for each hemiclone line used in the present study. Courtship effort was calculated as the total number of minutes spent courting divided by the possible courtship minutes.* “Block” = the experimental block “Observer” = the observer "Clone" = the specific hemiclone line “Vial” = the vial label for that male during that block “TotalMinCourt” = the total number of minutes the male spent courting “TotalMinNotCourt" = the total number of minutes (out of 30 or until mating began) that the male spent not courting. If blank, the data was lost. "Treatment" = the mating duration treatment (Long or Short) for that hemiclone line **HCMD_Mating.csv** *A subset of the data from Freed et al. 2025 ([https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh2)) measuring the size of the female mated and mating duration with that female for each hemiclone line used in the present study.* “Block” = the experimental block “Observer” = the observer "Clone" = the specific hemiclone line “Vial” = the vial label for that male during that block "SizFemMated" = the size of the female mated ("L" = large, "S" = small). If blank, the male did not mate "SizeFemMatedBinary" = the size of the female mated, coded in binary (1 = large, 0 = small). If blank, the male did not mate "MatingDuration" = the duration of mating in minutes. If blank, the male did not mate "Treatment" = the mating duration treatment (Long or Short) for that hemiclone line **HCMD_Success.csv** *A subset of the data from Freed et al. 2025 ([https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh2)) measuring the mating success (whether or not the male mated) for each hemiclone line used in the present study.* “Block” = the experimental block “Observer” = the observer "Clone" = the specific hemiclone line “Vial” = the vial label for that male during that block "MatingSuccess" = Whether or not the male mated ("Yes" = mated, "No" = did not mate) "MatingSuccessBinary" = Whether or not the male mated, coded in binary (1 = Yes, 0 = No) "Treatment" = the mating duration treatment (Long or Short) for that hemiclone line **HCMD_DRSDuration.csv** *Mating duration data from the Male Defensive Reproductive Success experiment. Data are displayed in Figure 1a.* “Block” = the experimental block “Observer” = the observer “Vial” = the vial label for that block "Clone" = the specific hemiclone line “FemSize” = the size of the female the male was paired with ("L" = large, "S" = small) “MaleTreatment” = the mating duration treatment (Long or Short) for that hemiclone line "Duration" = the mating duration of mating in minutes. If blank, the male did not mate or mating duration data was lost. **HCMD_FecDuration.csv** *Mating duration data from the Female Fecundity experiment. Data are displayed in Figure 1b.* “Block” = the experimental block “Observer” = the observer “Vial” = the vial label for that block "Clone" = the specific hemiclone line “FemSize” = the size of the female the male was paired with ("L" = large, "S" = small) “MaleTreatment” = the mating duration treatment (Long or Short) for that hemiclone line "Duration" = the mating duration of mating in minutes. If blank, the male did not mate or mating duration data was lost. **HCMD_DRS_AllFems.csv** *Data from all females involved in the Male Defensive Reproductive Success experiment (to compare defensive reproductive success and the proportion of females that remated). Data are displayed in Figures 2a and 2b.* “Block” = the experimental block "Clone" = the specific hemiclone line “FemSize” = the size of the female the male was paired with ("L" = large, "S" = small) “Treatment” = the mating duration treatment (Long or Short) for that hemiclone line “Vial” = the vial label for that block "redoffsp" = the number of red-eyed offspring produced by that female (i.e., fathered by the hemiclone male). If blank, the exact offspring counts were lost. "bwoffsp" = the number of brown-eyed offspring produced by that female (i.e., not fathered by the hemiclone male). If blank, the exact offspring counts were lost. "Remate" = whether or not that female remated with the bw competitor male ("Y" = yes, "N"= no) "RemateBin" = whether or not that female remated with the bw competitor male, coded in binary (1 = yes, 0 = no) "OLRE" = an observation-level random effect added to control for over dispersion in the defensive reproductive success analysis **HCMD_DRS_RMFems.csv** *Data from only those females that remated with the bw competitor male during the Male Defensive Reproductive Success experiment (to compare P1, male success at sperm competition). Data are displayed in Figure 2c.* “Block” = the experimental block "Clone" = the specific hemiclone line “FemSize” = the size of the female the male was paired with ("L" = large, "S" = small) “Treatment” = the mating duration treatment (Long or Short) for that hemiclone line “Vial” = the vial label for that block "redoffsp" = the number of red-eyed offspring produced by that female (i.e., fathered by the hemiclone male) "bwoffsp" = the number of brown-eyed offspring produced by that female (i.e., not fathered by the hemiclone male) "OLRE" = an observation-level random effect added to control for over dispersion in the P1 analysis **HCMD_Fec.csv** *Data from the Female Fecundity experiment. Data are displayed in Figure 3.* “Block” = the experimental block “Vial” = the vial label for that block "Clone" = the specific hemiclone line “FemSize” = the size of the female the male was paired with ("L" = large, "S" = small) “Treatment” = the mating duration treatment (Long or Short) for that hemiclone line "Offspring" = the number of offspring produced by that female ## 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 ##### R scripts All analyses performed using R 4.4.1 and the following packages: lme4 1.1.35.3 glmmTMB 1.1.9 car 3.1.2 emmeans 1.10.3 **HCMD_MateChoice.R** R code for the following analyses using a subset of the data from Freed et al. 2025 ([https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh2)): *the binomial GLMM testing for differences in the proportion of courtship directed toward the large female using the data in HCMD_PropL.csv\ *the binomial GLMM testing for differences in courtship effort using the data in HCMD_CE.csv *the binomial GLMM testing for differences in the size of the female mated (large vs. small) using the data in HCMD_Mating.csv *the linear mixed model and pairwise tests testing for differences in mating duration using the data in HCMD_Mating.csv *the binomial GLMM testing for differences in mating success using the data in HCMD_Success.csv  **HCMD_DRS.R** R code for the following analyses from the Male Defensive Reproductive Success experiment: *the binomial GLMM and pairwise tests testing for differences in male defensive reproductive success using the data in HCMD_DRS_AllFems.csv *the binomial GLMM and pairwise tests testing for differences in the proportion of females that remated using the data in HCMD_DRS_AllFems.csv *the binomial GLMM and pairwise tests testing for differences in P1 (defensive sperm competition) using the data in HCMD_DRS_RMFems.csv *the negative binomial GLMM and pairwise tests testing for differences in the total number of offspring sired across all females using the data in HCMD_DRS_AllFems.csv *the negative binomial GLMM and pairwise tests testing for differences in the total number of offspring sired across females that remated using the data in HCMD_DRS_RMFems.csv **HCMD_Fec.R** R code for the negative binomial GLMM and pairwise tests testing for differences in female fecundity using the data from the Female Fecundity experiment in HCMD_Fec.csv, ##### JMP logs for mating duration comparisons All analysis performed using JMP 18. **HCMD_DRS_DurationJMPlog.rtf** Output log containing the JMP script comparing mating durations from the Male Defensive Reproductive Success experiment using the data in HCMD_DRS_Duration.csv. **HCMD_Fec_DurationJMPlog.rtf** Output log containing the JMP script comparing mating durations from the Female Fecundity experiment using the data in HCMD_Fec_Duration.csv.