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The neglected role of individual variation in the sexy son hypothesis

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Abstract

The polygyny threshold model predicts that a female chooses an already-mated male if the direct benefits of higher territorial quality compensate for the cost of mate sharing. The sexy son hypothesis (SSH) expands this framework from direct to indirect benefits assuming that polygynously-mated females give birth to sexy and subsequently polygynous sons. Although the SSH has generated much debate, empirical evidence is inconclusive. I argue that lack of support could be related to the SSH formulation of the polygyny threshold as a population-level mechanism making the female choice of a polygynous male either advantageous or disadvantageous regardless of any other difference between potential mates. Using a simulation approach, I show that individual variation in males’ quality should be considered because, otherwise, the empirical validation of the hypothesis is hampered, giving rise to patterns that are apparently irreconcilable with the SSH predictions.

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Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to a few fellow colleagues who have contributed to improving different aspects of this work. Among them, I would like to thank F. García-González, P. Edelaar, J. Potti, and A. Green and, for a revision of an early draft, Z. Tablado, A. Centeno-Cuadros, L. Campioni and M. D’Amico. In addition, I am grateful for the constructive reviews made by anonymous reviewers and A. Jungwirth. The author declares no conflict of interest.

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  1. Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemical Engineering, University Pablo de Olavide, Carretera de Utrera Km. 1, 41013, Seville, Spain

    Simone Santoro

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Correspondence to Simone Santoro.

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Santoro, S. The neglected role of individual variation in the sexy son hypothesis. Evol Ecol 34, 1–9 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-019-10019-y

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