Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Biological Sciences
Document Type
Dissertation
Abstract
Extreme animal traits have long puzzled and interested scientists. Many of these traits are secondary sexual characteristics that have rapidly diversified because of sexual selection. This dissertation examines mating behaviors across multiple vertebrate and arthropod taxa. In the second chapter, I sampled the literature to begin to determine the extent of peri- and post-copulatory vocalizations in vertebrates with internal fertilization. Additionally, I compiled publicly available videos of vertebrate copulations and identified vocalizing species. Between the literature and videos, there were 166 vocalizing species. In the literature, there were 22 hypothesized functions for the vocalizations, generally relating to increasing the fertilization success of the current copulation. These findings indicate that peri- and post-copulatory vocalizations are likely widespread but understudied in behavioral research. In the third chapter, I examined how environmental variation can influence adult lifespan, mating behavior, and reproductive output in a lepidopteran species. Sodium is a vital element for physiological function in animals and varies across environments and in the host plants of insects. I manipulated the larval diet of bordered patch butterflies (Chlosyne lacinia, Geyer, 1837) so individuals either had a low or high sodium regime. Adults were then placed in mating trials of either one female and a male of each treatment, or one female and a single male of one treatment. Individuals reared on high sodium had significantly shorter lifespans, but lower latencies to mate. There was avoidance for pairings between individuals both reared on high sodium regimes, indicating a possible negative effect of sodium at high concentrations. There were no significant differences among reproductive outputs of different pairings. In the penultimate chapter, I described the genital positioning of black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens, L., 1758) during copulation and artificially numbed the male genitalia to determine the effects on copulation. When numbed, males are less able to turn copulation attempts into successful copulations, showing that the male external genitalia are important in initiating genital coupling. Overall, this dissertation examines mating behaviors across different animal taxa, showcasing the diversity of copulatory behavior present in nature.
Date
3-27-2025
Recommended Citation
Vincent, Maggie, "Selected Pre-, Peri-, and Post-copulatory Behaviors in a Diverse Set of Taxa" (2025). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 6725.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/6725
Committee Chair
Harms, Kyle E.