The only predictor of contest outcome was relative head depth: winners had deeper heads relative to their body size (F1,10 = 6.36, P = 0.03).
Including this measure as a covariate in all analyses allowed us to control for natural variation in intrinsic fighting ability, as relative pronotum width is known to be an important predictor of contest outcome in burying beetles (Safryn and Scott 2000).
Predictors of contest outcome and aggression remained qualitatively unchanged with or without inclusion of genetic background in the models.
Thus, we tested whether males of the two lineages differed in their aggressive behaviour or competitive ability and whether genetic background, phenotypic traits or parasite load were predictors of contest success and aggressive behaviour in L. schreiberi.
Differences between males in each of the weaponry dimensions thus range from negative values (focal male smaller than rival) to positive values (i.e. focal male larger than rival), and were entered into both forward and backward stepwise logistic regressions as predictors of contest outcome.
Although some more recent studies have suggested that dietary categories may be poor predictors of contest competition among primates, to date there have been no broad, cross-taxa comparisons of rates of female female agonism in relation to diet.
While the median predictor in the Forbes magazine contest said the figure would be 4,344, the gap between forecast and reality demonstrates just how remarkable the stock market was in the last decade.
While there was no overall relationship between territorial success and mating success, for particular male lines winning the territorial contest was a predictor of mating success (Table 3).
If, as in Iowa, he doubles his showing in 2008 (8 percent of the vote), that can probably be a predictor of better performances in subsequent contests.
As for many species (reviewed in Arnott and Elwood (2009)) we show that size is a strong predictor of the likelihood of winning a contest in N. vespilloides.
