The evolution of male courtship discrimination is driven by sympatry and age-dependent pheromones between Drosophila athabasca species complex and its congeners

Clicks: 15
ID: 329718
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Emerging

Ranked #255 of 292 articles by views in international journal of systematic and evolutionary microbiology

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 292 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Our understanding of how males evolve courtship discrimination and the traits they use for species identification is restricted to a few model systems. Theory predicts that males between more sympatric species should evolve stronger courtship discrimination and target female traits for reliable species identification. Thus, traits that increase divergence specifically during sexual maturity should be prime targets of species recognition. We tested this by measuring male courtship discrimination indexes (CDIs) and cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) across ten species pairs of Drosophila affinis subgroup. CDIs ranged from 12% to 86% of total sexual isolation, increasing between more sympatric pairs only if they had postzygotic isolation. Principle Component Analysis on CHCs revealed species-specific clustering in both sexes. CHCs between younger and older flies were not correlated and male CDIs were only correlated with older CHCs. While most CHCs showed species x age interactions, only 11(Z)-tricosene (C23:1), 10,14-pentacosadiene (C25:2), and 2-methylhexacosane (C27:0)) were significantly differentiated and became more divergent with age. We then used "rub-off" experiments and direct transfers of these CHCs to show their species-specific repellent and aphrodisiac properties. This suggests that targeting sexually mature female CHCs allows males to distinguish conspecifics from heterospecifics to avoid maladaptive hybridization or signal interference in sympatry.
Reference Key
openalex_W7214277797 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Roman Yukilevich, Viola Li, Gabby Basil, Brittany Gay, Joanne D. Kehlbeck
Are you one of these authors? Claim your profile
Journal international journal of systematic and evolutionary microbiology
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/evolut/qpag173
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpag173
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.