Meeting Abstract
The diverse horns of African antelopes, massive tusks of elephants and the looming antlers of elk are all examples of animal weapons. The most exaggerated of these structures can arise from competition among males for mating opportunities. These large and exaggerated weapons pose a curious evolutionary question; what are the consequences of these weapons to the animals that bear them? Underlying large and obvious weapons are likely suites of hidden behavioral and physiological traits that allow these animals to carry and use these weapons. Further, little is known about the role that energetic costs of weapons play in behavior and mating patterns in wild populations. Here, we used a complementary set of laboratory and field studies to uncover the metabolic costs of sexual weapons in an exceptionally tractable insect system. First, we examine the consequences of large sexual weapons to the development of post-copulatory traits. Second, we perform detailed measurement of metabolic rate of insects with different weapon sizes to determine the metabolic cost of maintaining a large sexually selected trait. Finally, we follow individual insects in a wild population to reveal the relationships among weapon size and movement patterns in nature. Our findings suggest that large weapons impose many indirect developmental and metabolic costs to individuals, and these costs likely play a part in driving movement and mating patterns in nature.
