Although H. melpomene and H. cydno occasionally hybridize in nature (less than 0.1%), reproductive isolation is strong, with ecological isolation and colour pattern associated mate choice playing the major role [ 12, 22, 23].
In the present case, our liberal criterion for sex-biased gene expression means that both within-sex competition and female mate choice could play a role in causing a higher level of adaptive protein sequence evolution, leading to higher rates of adaptive evolution of genes with male-biased levels of expression than rates for other genes, on both the autosomes and the X chromosome.
Female mate choice, therefore, probably plays a subordinate role in maintaining genetic differentiation when considering the potential migration route from the outside into the cave, and other selection factors likely play a more important role.
Evidence is accumulating in support of mate choice for cognitive traits playing an important role for brain evolution both in humans (Miller 2000) and in nonhuman vertebrates (see review by Boogert et al. 2011).
"Our results will hopefully stimulate more research on wing interference patterns in other species, and increase interest in the role that the light environment plays in mate choice," said colleague, Professor Erik Svensson.
We demonstrated that male mate choice (as courtship effort allocation) plays a more important role in the prezygotic behavioral barrier than previously recognized.
Here, we demonstrated that male mate choice (as courtship effort allocation) plays a more important role in the interspecific prezygotic behavioral barrier than previously recognized.
Generally speaking, acoustic signals used in mate choice and mate recognition can play a role in speciation for sound producing taxa such as anurans [ 1, 2], insects [ 3, 4] and birds [ 5, 6].
Furthermore, even when courtship effort plays a role in mate choice, the relationship between courtship intensity and female preference is not always clear-cut [ 36- 38].
