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Letters (Taylor)

Terms in this set (14)

Black Vultures
True monogamy is rare, black vultures appear to have genetic monogamy- they nest away from other vultures but encounter others at carcasses and still remain loyal, are fiercely territorial of their nest, and only have sex in their nest as opposed to in public: if a young vulture tries to get it on in public other vultures attack it. Conclusion: vultures are prudes
Mangrove Fish
A mangrove fish who usually fertilizes their own eggs meets a "real man" who wants to do "all sorts of terrible things together" and wonders what will happen if they go through with these acts. Dr. Tatiana suggests that this fish needs to evaluate the situation carefully. Hermaphroditic mangrove are only capable of spawning with themselves or pure males (not other hermaphrodites). Outbreeding depression may occur (distant species won't have good children). In the end, she says to "go for it" and have sex with the male, since this species is shown to do well with this type of pairing.
Sea Urchin
The male Sea Urchin asks Dr. Tatiana about what type of Sperm is "in fashion." Basically, Sperm attaches to eggs through this material called Bindin- which is constantly changing. A change in Bindin, or reproductive compatibility can lead to the creation of new species. ---this is an evolutionary pursuit/battle of the sexes.
Orange-Rumped Honeyguide Bird
Male who lives near beeswax can't tell if females come for him or for the beeswax
Dr. Tatiana says no reason why there can't be free trade here-- eggs for honey
Females only mate with males who own territories, thus can feed them
In species where females swap sex for food, promiscuity leads to more offspring aka more fitness
Females just want to copulate with the male who can offer them the most
California Mouse
Problem: young, hot female mouse wants to mate with her next door neighbor, but he remains loyal to his old "ugly" partner. California mice males are fiercely loyal to their females, won't mate with others. California mice are truly monogamous: "til death do us part." Dr. T suggests that there is something in the genetic makeup of cali mice that makes them this way, the letter writer should find someone who is single.
Burying Beetle
male writes Dr. T complaining that his partner is biting and knocking him over when he does headstands. Dr T responds that he knows that when he does headstands he is actually trying to attract a mate. His partner is understandably upset by this since a mistress would make it way more difficult to do the job of raising her kids, especially becase it is likely that the new mistress would kill (and eat) the children the male already has with his partner.
Seaweed Fly
The seaweed fly male must overpower the female in order to mate. She will not mate with a male that cannot subdue her. Males also gather important information during these encounters— they may not mate with every female they overpower— just the most vigorous ones (the most fit). This need for hardiness may have to do with the fact that the fly lays its eggs in seaweed, which is always being kicked around.
Pseudoscorpion-Harlequin Beetle
Problem: male pseudoscorpion writes dr. t saying that just when he was going to get off of a rotting log and onto a harlequin beetle with his gf, another male push him off and took off on the beetle without him leaving him marooned. Dr T says he is kind of screwed, since this species lives on rotting logs and once the log is fully rotted he will die. So there is a ticking clock on how long he has to escape. The way this species escapes is by hopping on a harlequin beetle (under the wings) when the harlequin beetle flies away from the log to a new log to find new mates. But space under a harlequin beetle's wings in limited, only 30 or so pseudoscorpions can fit, and a big male can fight and only allow females on board, leaving many males in the same position the letter writer is in. Also, harlequin beetles are not attracted to old logs, so the chance of the letter writer getting off of the log is not good. But there is one ray of hope: since female psuedoscorpions can store sperm for periods of time, there is a chance that the letter writer's former partner might still have his kids on the new log she gets off on.
Bedbugs
bug writes dr t asking if it is true that if he has sex with his male friend, when his friend has sex with a female she might receive his sperm. Dr. T explains that bugs like this have penises like needles that they stab their mates with, but that she is skeptical that this could result in what the letter writer describes.
Lions
Male letter writere complains that lioness is a nymphomaniac, he can't keep up. Dr t says lionesses have genuine sex mania, needs lots of copulation stimulation to get pregnant. supposedly less than 1% of copulations produce cubs.Why do lionesses need so much encouragement to get pregnant? may have to do with pride structure of lion society, frequent changes of males are bad for females because of infanticide, thus females have anovulatory cycle. Lionesses are very promisuous but harder to research so we look at other cats. But some things are confusing- sex mania cannot be explained by the fact that lions live in groups, nor is it a big cat trait. Female promiscuity is the best hypothesis to explain this, but this is not conclusive.
Stalk Eyed Fly
Stalk-eyed fly is worried females are flying around to other males. Dr. Tatiana says that females of lots of species are "body fascists" and female stalk eyed flies, specifically, might discriminate based on body for several reasons. Prefer long stalks because 1. It's a runaway trait, 2. Shows the male has superior genes, 3. Females want sexy sons.
Male Mite
Haplodiploidy: females with two copies of each gene (one from each parent), males hatch from unfertilized egg and only receive one copy of gene from mother
Jacana Bird
Problem: a male jacana is a member of a harem and has built a nest but isn't getting any love from his female, she won't give him any eggs to incubate.Dr. Tatiana says he needs to be louder, yell more because female jacanas are busy and won't take notice unless he makes a lot of noise. Female jacans mate with all of the males in their harem and then lay a batch of eggs for one of them to incubate and then repeats. Male jacanas do all of the child care, this allows the female to have four times the number of offspring they would with a single partner. Males often rear chicks that are not their own, put up with it because the female is in charge- she is 60% heavier than the males are.
Fruit Fly
Bateman was wrong! Sperm is not forever. Your species is going to run out of sperm permanently if presented with two females every two days by day 34.
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