PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Y. Golov
AU  - O. Lavy
AU  - E. Halon
AU  - J. Rillich
AU  - A. Ayali
AU  - A Harari
TI  - Intense sexual conflict affects the female choice strategy in the gregarious desert locust
AID  - 10.1101/2022.06.26.497525
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.06.26.497525
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/06/29/2022.06.26.497525.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/06/29/2022.06.26.497525.full
AB  - The antagonistic sexual coevolution of the sexes (i.e., sexual conflict) is a key theme in the study of the evolution of mating systems. Specifically, studying the modifications of sexual behavior in the context of ecological conditions is fundamental for understanding the formation of a sexual system. The extremely crowded situation that prevails in the mating system of gregarious desert locusts is expected to result in a fierce sexual conflict. The goal of this work was to investigate core aspects of the sexual conflict during pre-copulatory interaction: (i) Female choosiness, (ii) preference functions (mate sampling strategy), (iv) antagonistic armament, (v) male endurance as an indicator of his fitness. We tested the pre-copulatory behavior of the gregarious desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) under two distinguished conditions: (1) No-choice - a pair interaction (with no intra-male rivalry), and (2) choice – a female with two rival males. We investigate the sexual conflict in S. gregaria by ethological-based quantification, focusing on related behaviors. Our findings provide evidence for an intense conflict between the sexes in S. gregaria. Further, the results show that the pre-copulatory interaction is highly oriented by female choice. Also, our findings suggest that gregarious females estimate their potential mates using the ‘adjustable internal acceptance threshold’ sampling strategy. Accordingly, our results suggest that the ability of males to overcome female resistance serves as an indication of the male’s quality (i.e., a trait under choice). Last, this paper provides both qualitative and numerical model of a sexual conflict during pre-copulatory interaction in locusts. This study elucidates the behavioral components of the sexual conflict in locusts and contributes to the current understanding of the eco-evolutionary contexts of sexual conflicts.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.