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Parentage analyses suggest female promiscuity and a disadvantage for athletic males in the colour-polymorphic lizard Podarcis melisellensis

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Abstract

Although laboratory measurements of whole-animal performance have become a standard tool in evolutionary biology, if and how interindividual variation in performance translates into differential fitness remains poorly understood. Particularly rare are studies that have connected performance to mating and reproductive success in the field. In this study, we use DNA microsatellite parentage analyses to study the fitness gradient in a colour-polymorphic lizard, Podarcis melisellensis. We report on two surprising findings. First, contrary to our expectations, individual sprint speed and bite force capacity correlated negatively, not positively, with male mating and reproductive success. Second, we found an unexpected degree of promiscuity in females. Also, contrary to traditional parental investment theory, the variation in mating success and reproductive success was as high in females as in males. Our results call for a better integration of whole-animal performance and life history traits, and for a reconsideration of the ideas on the likeliness of sexual selection acting on female phenotypes.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank S. Lailvaux during the capture of the hatchling lizards. We are also grateful to G. Paenen for his help with the microsatellite analyses. J. Meaney was so kind to revise the English language. This study was conducted with support of JEMU at RBINS and of FWO grants G.0111.06N and G.0092.11N. K. Huyghe is a postdoctoral fellow of FWO-Vlaanderen. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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The authors declare that all experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed (Belgium).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Antwerp, Belgium

    Katleen Huyghe, Raoul Van Damme, Bieke Vanhooydonck & Thierry Backeljau

  2. Department of Animal Physiology, University of Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 6, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Zoran Tadič

  3. Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29, 1000, Brussels, Belgium

    Karin Breugelmans & Thierry Backeljau

  4. Département d’Ecologie et de Gestion de la Biodiversité, 55 rue Buffon, CP 55, 75005, Paris, France

    Anthony Herrel

  5. Evolutionary Morphology of Vertebrates, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Anthony Herrel

  6. University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Wilrijk, Belgium

    Katleen Huyghe

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  1. Katleen Huyghe
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Correspondence to Katleen Huyghe.

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Huyghe, K., Van Damme, R., Breugelmans, K. et al. Parentage analyses suggest female promiscuity and a disadvantage for athletic males in the colour-polymorphic lizard Podarcis melisellensis . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 68, 1357–1366 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1746-3

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