Sexual dimorphism is a common feature in animals, yet the degree of sexual dimorphism is not constant across taxa. Sometimes the magnitude of sexual dimorphism varies systematically with body size, resulting in evolutionary allometry of sexual dimorphism. While such patterns are commonly investigated for traits such as overall size, allometric variation in sexual dimorphism of other traits remains

Trade-offs between reproductive effort and subsequent growth in males are not well explored, despite their relevance in questions of individual energy allocation. Regarding the growth of sexual secondary characters in polygynous breeding male mammals, indeed, no conclusive studies exist. We investigated in male Alpine ibex (Capra ibex) the relationship between their behavioral reproductive effort,

Antipredation strategies contribute to the lifetime reproductive success of organisms, particularly in more vulnerable life stages that look to survive until reproduction. In insects, eggs and larval stages are often immobile or unable to rapidly flee and hide from predators. Understanding what alternative antipredation strategies they use, but also how these change over development time, is required

Alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) often exhibit more than one mating behavior depending on social context (i.e., behavioral plasticity). It has been hypothesized that by constraining an ART from reaching optimal morphological states, intralocus tactical conflict could promote the maintenance of behavioral plasticity in ARTs, rather than the use of a fixed mating behavior to match an optimal morphological

Life history theory predicts that there should be an inverse relationship between offspring size and number, because individuals cannot simultaneously maximize both when resources are limited. Although extensively studied in avian species, the occurrence and determinants of reproductive tradeoffs in oviparous reptiles are far less understood, particularly in parthenogenetic species. We studied this

In Odonates, female colour polymorphism is common and implies the presence of two or more female types with different colours and behaviours. To explain this phenomenon, several hypotheses have been proposed that consider morph frequency, population density, the presence of parasites, and mating behaviour. We studied the blue-tailed damselfly Ischnura elegans, a species with a blue androchrome morph

Batesian mimics benefit from their phenotypic similarity to their models. An apparent paradox is the presence of many inaccurate mimics in nature. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain their existence, including the relaxed selection hypothesis, which postulates that the level of mimetic resemblance avoided by predators is context-dependent. More specifically, predators avoid mimics of lower

Allometry is a common technique used by biologists to quantify and describe the exaggerated sexually selected traits of beetles. While horned species have dominated studies documenting weapon evolution among beetles, there is remarkable diversity in weapon type, including enormous mandibles, robust hind legs and elongated rostra. Here, I characterise intrasexual and intraspecific variation in body

Environments with strong gradients in physical conditions, such as rocky intertidal, induce animal morphological strategies to face them. The gastropod Trophon geversianus inhabit within the intertidal and subtidal habitats of Patagonian rocky shores. Although there is a wide knowledge of the phenotypic differences of this species regarding habitats (i.e., intertidal/subtidal), little is known about

Simultaneously defending against predators, stymieing competitors, and generating immune responses can impose conflicting demands for host species caught in the entanglement of a food web. Host immunity is not only shaped by direct interactions among species, but also many indirect cascading effects. By reducing competition, predators in particular can affect resource acquisition necessary for hosts

Environmental conditions, including weather, influence organisms in a variety of ways. Specifically, animal males and females might be affected differently by ambient temperatures that vary in time and space. In this study, we explored the effect of elevation, which strongly determines ambient temperatures, on the speed of moult of the wing’s flight feathers in the Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula)

We use an Australian freshwater invertebrate species, Daphnia carinata, to assess whether variation in habitat permanence influences life-history traits in subpopulations. Using a life table experiment, we measure the life-history traits of populations from both permanent and temporary pools. We show that these habitat classes are associated with clear differences in important life-history traits and

Fruiting phenology is a critical aspect of plant fitness, as it is directly linked to the next-generation offspring delivery. Both abiotic and biotic factors presumably exert natural selection on plant phenology. Despite the role of climate in shaping fruiting phenology is well established, whether frugivores exert phenotypic selection on fruiting phenology has not yet been tested. We estimated the

Mating with the wrong species is surprisingly common in nature. Interspecific mating can lead to reproductive interference, where wasted time, energy, nutrients, or gametes reduces the fitness of one or both of the interacting species. However, the ecological and evolutionary forces that maintain this seemingly maladaptive behavior remain poorly understood, in part because the natural complexity of

Admixture can act to expand genetic variation and generate new trait combinations or functional trait values compared to parental lines. We examined how admixture between geographically distinct and/or genetically distinct parental genotypes could create either expanded genetic variation or novel phenotypes in the recombinant individuals of a F2 population of Arabidopsis thaliana accessions. In three

Threespine stickleback exhibit a row of superficial neuromasts that project through the bony plates on each side of the trunk and which constitute an important sensory modality for detection of near-field water motion. Previously, we have shown that numbers of neuromasts on each structural plate are highly variable among populations. In the current paper, we expand this study to evaluate the extent

The Asian house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) is a tropical invasive species that has established and spread throughout several temperate regions around the world. In some invasive species, rapid thermal acclimation (thermal hardening) may contribute to their success in occupying a wide range of climates. In this study, we investigated whether invasive house geckos from southeastern Australia show

The environment organisms experience during development can have effects which carry over into their adult lives. These environments not only affect adult traits at a given point in time, but also how these traits change with age. Generally, favorable developmental environments lead to more optimal adult traits while stressful environments are deleterious (“silver-spoon effect”). But whether developmental

The riverine barrier hypothesis (RBH) posits that rivers comprise geographical barriers to gene flow for terrestrial organisms, thus promoting genetic differentiation between populations. Here, we explored the RBH on larviparous and pueriparous populations of the live-bearing fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra). While larviparous fire salamanders exhibit a semi-aquatic life cycle (females deposit

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-021-10109-w

Predation places significant selection pressures on prey species and many have evolved incredible and diverse colour patterns in response. A fascinating example of such adaptive colouration and morphology is masquerade, a camouflage strategy in which organisms resemble innocuous and inedible objects, such as leaves or twigs. Masquerading prey avoid predation by being misclassified as irrelevant parts

Recent research has shown drastic reductions in the global diversity and abundance of insects. This is a major concern given the expected cascade effects on ecosystem services, such as pollination. Understanding the patterns and drivers of changes in the distribution and abundance of species in our rapidly changing environment is therefore urgent. Cases of species showing trends that run counter to

Body size and secondary sexual characteristics are drivers of male reproductive success among polygynous species. A gene complex found to be associated with morphology in several species is the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). However, while several studies have found that greater MHC diversity is associated with larger body size and secondary sexual characteristics, other studies have demonstrated

A good overlap between offspring energetic requirements and availability of resources is required for successful reproduction. Accordingly, individuals from numerous species fine-tune their timing of breeding by integrating cues that predict environmental conditions during the offspring period. Besides acquiring information from their direct interaction with the environment (personal information),

Understanding how environmental conditions affect trait expression in animals is important for estimating the evolutionary potential of that trait. Two different mechanisms have been proposed to explain changes in phenotypic trait variation and heritability across different nutritional environments: (1) selection history, in which trait variance is reduced in environments that match the recent evolutionary

Invasive species present an opportunity to test the association between selective forces and adaptive morphological traits because these species can experience rapid changes when introduced to new environments. One such invader is the common myna (Acridotheres tristis), a broadly ranging avian species that has been introduced on most continents and many oceanic islands. Here, we studied morphological

Much empirical data obtained across taxa is necessary to evaluate how variation in migratory costs and benefits can play a role in shaping the phenotypic and genetic patterns of reproductive investment between populations. Reproductive resources are allocated to both the size and number of eggs, and females may vary their allocation to each of these traits in response to increased movement capacity

Extant felids are hyper-carnivorous predators that originated in Asia c. 11 Mya and diversified in 8 distinct lineages, with 41 species surviving to the Recent. These species occupy almost every terrestrial habitat available in the four continental land masses they occupy and exhibit morphological and behavioral specializations to various locomotor styles and hunting modes. Today, distinct felid ensembles

In the original publication of the article Evol Ecol 34, 803–820 (2020) we suggested that “Historical records from the Otago Acclimatisation Society indicate that in the Otago region…a total of 185 individuals…were introduced from United Kingdom between 1865 and 1907 (Santos 2012; Santos and Nakagawa 2013)”.

Animals with biphasic lifecycles often inhabit different visual environments across ontogeny. Many frogs and toads (Amphibia: Anura) have free-living aquatic larvae (tadpoles) that metamorphose into adults that inhabit a range of aquatic and terrestrial environments. Ecological differences influence eye size across species, but these relationships have not yet been explored across life stages in an

In social animals, group prey capture could facilitate colonization of new areas with low resource availability. Parawixia bistriata is a colonial spider inhabiting seasonal dry forests and mesic habitats in South America. Individuals capture prey as a group, which allows individuals to broaden their foraging niche by incorporating large prey that cannot be subdued in solitary captures. P. bistriata

Many species cope with heterogeneous environments through adaptive phenotypic plasticity, and plasticity of body colour is a widely used means of minimizing predation risk. Pupal colour in many butterflies is a plastic trait sensitive to pupation substrate, with green and brown pupae primarily formed on leaf and off-leaf substrates respectively. This is thought to be an example of adaptive phenotypic

Rensch's rule is an allometric rule on sexual size dimorphism. It states that in small-sized species, females are larger than males, whereas in larger species, males are relatively larger than females. Several studies have explored this pattern, and its inverse in lizard species. China has a unique and high diversity of species, with a variety of ecological systems which shape diversity of phenotypes

Contact zones present unique opportunities to investigate ecological divergence, reproductive barriers, and gene flow between species. The two-lined salamander (Eurycea bislineata) species complex is a group of semiaquatic plethodontid salamanders with a reticulate evolutionary history that reflects the reorganization of river drainage basins. Although evidence for widespread, ancient introgression

Horizontal transmission between distantly related species has been used to explain how Wolbachia infect multiple species at astonishing rates despite the selection for resistance. Recently, a terrestrial isopod species was found to be infected by an unusual strain of supergroup F Wolbachia. However, only Wolbachia of supergroup B is typically found in isopods. One possibility is that these isopods

The challenges of surviving periods of increased physiological stress elicit selective pressures that drive adaptations to overcome hardships. Bats in the Palearctic region survive winter in hibernation. We sampled single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in hibernating Myotis myotis bats using double-digest restriction site-associated DNA sequencing and we associated the genomic variability with the

The role of developmental plasticity in the evolution and maintenance of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) has recently received more attention. We experimentally investigated the effects of genetics (pedigree), social cues, and food availability on developmental time and adult male size in Nephilingis cruentata, an extremely female-biased sexually size dimorphic spider with notable male size variation

Clonal plants can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Selection of reproductive strategies is crucial for the evolution of clonal plants. Nevertheless, little is known about the reproductive strategy of clonal aquatic plants in diverse environments and at different harvest times. In this study, the reproduction of the clonal aquatic plant species Leersia oryzoides (L.) Swartz. was investigated under

Environment and plant interactions are important drivers of forest community assembly and dynamics. This study explored how forest dynamics influence the phylogenetic structure of Tropical Atlantic Forests. We hypothesized that: (a) maximum diameter and maximum height are conserved traits within the phylogenetic lineages; (b) the set of dead large trees are more closely related to the set of living

Different pre- and postzygotic isolating mechanisms may prevent interspecific gene exchange in secondary contact zones. Due to the different nature of each isolating barrier, which may act in different life history stages, multidisciplinary approaches are crucial to investigate the evolution of reproductive isolation (RI) in contact zones. In this study, we analysed seven different pre- and postzygotic

Offspring traits are influenced by complex interactions among parent genotypes and phenotypes. However, ecological studies of these effects have tended to focus on one of either maternal or paternal influences. In this study, we investigated the effects of both parental phenotypes on offspring dispersal, growth and early sexual maturity in masu salmon. We used wild-caught parental fish in a half-sib

The original article has been corrected.

Understanding biotic interactions and abiotic forces that govern population regulation is crucial for predicting stability from both theoretical and applied perspectives. In recent years, social information has been proposed to profoundly affect the dynamics of populations and facilitate the coexistence of interacting species. However, we have limited knowledge about how social information use influences

Identifying natural selection in wild plant populations is a challenging task, as the reliability of selection coefficients depends, among other factors, on the critical assumption of data independence. While rarely examined, selection coefficients may be influenced by the spatial and genetic dependence among plants, which violates the independence criterion, leading to biased selection estimates.

Although parasitism is often considered a cost of sociality, the evidence is mixed, possibly because sociality is multivariate. Here we contrast the dependence of parasitism costs on major social variables such as group size and social structure, as measured by network metrics. We conduct two robust phylogenetic meta-analyses, comprising 43 published results for studies with group size and 32 results

Rates of phenotypic change are greater in cities than in any other habitat. Consequently, urban habitats are an ideal experimental area to study contemporary evolution and adaptation. A key question related to phenotypic changes in urban animals relates to the patterns of gene flow between the city and the natural habitats surrounding cities, but the results obtained thus far have been contradictory

The occurrence of different color patterns in a population of a species can depend on genetic variations or plasticity to environmental conditions. Body color variation is under selection because it is involved in several ecological processes such as camouflage for prey-predator interactions or resistance to environmental variations. Among insects, aphids are known to produce different body-color morphs

Colorful sexual traits are shaped by the opposing pressures of natural and sexual selection. Although increased conspicuousness improves mating success, an individual bearing brighter sexual traits may pay direct costs in terms of detectability to predators. While it is well established that the mere presence of non-aposematic, conspicuous sexual traits influences predation risk, little empirical work

Biologists usually pursue the adaptationist paradigm in trying to explain the functional significance of animal coloration. Here I collate instances in which coloration may be a poor match in the context of background matching, Batesian mimicry, aposematism, and colour polymorphisms. This can occur because of trade-offs with other functions, relaxed selection from predation, or colour trait neutrality

The competitive environment that animals experience during development constitutes an important source of selection that can influence the development, expression and evolution of traits. Here, we examine how the sex of focal and “competitor” individuals interact to affect development in the Eastern mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki. We raised individuals of both sexes either alone or in the presence

Phenotypic polymorphisms are common in nature, but the mechanism through which natural selection maintains them can be difficult to identify. Heterozygote advantage, negative frequency-dependent selection, and variation in selective environment each can explain polymorphisms in some systems. Although first observed nearly 100 years ago, the egg mass color polymorphism in the spotted salamander (Ambystoma

Due to drastic changes in pollinators between native and invaded habitats, we might expect that pollinator-mediated selection on floral traits of alien plants differ from that in their native ranges. Here, through geometric morphometric tools and phenotypic selection analyses, we examined whether adaptation in flower shape and length occurred in Nicotiana glauca as a response to pollinator selection

Organisms in the wild have to allocate limited resources towards competing functions such as reproduction, growth, and self-maintenance. These competing investments create significant changes in physiological activity, and we still know little about the relationship between physiological activity and reproductive investment in natura. We investigated trade-offs between physiological activity and reproductive

Defense, vigilance, and optimal foraging are frequently related to the formation of flocks in birds. Few studies concerning long-distance migrant shorebirds analyzed whether phylogeny and ecological similarities of species are associated with the formation of heterospecific flocks. Here, we explore (1) the niche conservatism theory, (2) the competition-relatedness hypothesis, and (3) the niche construction

Niche partitioning is an important mechanism for allowing ecologically similar species to coexist, contributing to biodiversity and the functioning of ecological communities. Species partition niches by taking advantage of environmental heterogeneity. However, niche partitioning and species coexistence investigations often do not include intraspecific variation or individual differences like sex and

Producing calls with increased minimum carrier frequency is well documented in sound communicating species confronted with noise pollution, possibly helping them to avoid acoustic masking of low-frequency signals. However, the lack of studies on invertebrates limits our understanding of the potentially adverse effects of anthropogenic noise on natural populations. While males of the grasshopper Chorthippus

Frequent mating can deplete sperm and seminal fluid, limiting male ability to sire offspring. Frequent mating could also deplete non-genetic ejaculate components that affect offspring quality. These effects of frequent mating on male reproductive success may be mediated by male condition, or by modification of subsequent male mating behaviour. Using the neriid fly Telostylinus angusticollis, we conducted

The intensity of ecological interactions is generally expected to increase at lower latitudes, suggesting potential to shape prey behavior at broad spatial scales. Yet, there is relatively limited understanding of how animal behavior varies across major environmental gradients for most taxonomic groups. In this study, I investigated behavioral response of a livebearing fish, Gambusia holbrooki, to

How insect communities are assembled in nature remains largely unknown. In particular, whether habitat filtering or competition serves as the main mechanism in forming insect communities is rarely subject to an in-depth investigation. One bottleneck lies in the difficulty of species identification when dealing with a large number of diverse insects. However, high-throughput sequencing technology coupled

Several insect endosymbionts have evolved to become plant pathogens, but the causes of this transition are currently unknown. In this paper, we use adaptive dynamics to develop hypotheses to explain why an insect endosymbiont would evolve to become a plant pathogen. We develop a model of facultative insect endosymbionts, capable of both vertical transmission within the insect population and horizontal