Abstract
Social selection occurs when traits of interaction partners influence an indi- vidual’s fitness and can alter total selection strength. However, we have little idea of what factors influence social selection’s strength. Further, social selec- tion only contributes to overall selection when there is phenotypic assortment, but simultaneous estimates of social selection and phenotypic assortment are rare. Here, we estimated social selection on body size in a wild population of New Zealand giraffe weevils (Lasiorhynchus barbicornis). We measured phenotypic assortment by body size and tested whether social selection varied with sex ratio, density and interacted with the body size of the focal individual. Social selection was limited and unaffected by sex ratio or the size of the focal individual. However, at high densities social selection was negative for both sexes, consistent with size-based com- petitive interactions for access to mates. Phenotypic assortment was always close to zero, indicating negative social selection at high densities will not impede the evolution of larger body sizes. Despite its predicted importance, social selection may only influence evolutionary change in specific contexts, leaving direct selection to drive evolutionary change.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 20210696 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
Volume | 288 |
Issue number | 1952 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 9 Jun 2021 |
Bibliographical note
FundingD.N.F. was supported by the University of Aberdeen. R.L.G. was supported by a University of Auckland Masters Scholarship during data collection. C.J.P. was supported by a Rutherford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship during the writing of this manuscript.
Acknowledgements
We thank John Staniland and Forest and Bird Wait- akere for continuously supporting our research at Matuku Reserve. Data collection was made possible by many volunteers, especially Jessica Le Grice, Robin Le Grice and Stephen Wallace. Two anonymous reviewers made very constructive comments. We have no competing interests.
Keywords
- brentine
- density dependent
- fitness
- phenotypic assortment
- social selection
- weevil
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Dive into the research topics of 'Social selection is density dependent but makes little contribution to total selection in New Zealand giraffe weevils'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Datasets
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Social selection is density dependent but makes little contribution to total selection in New Zealand giraffe weevils
Fisher, D. (Creator), Le Grice, R. (Creator) & Painting, C. (Creator), Zenodo, 1 Jan 2021
DOI: 10.5061/dryad.4qrfj6q97, https://zenodo.org/record/4768697 and one more link, http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.4qrfj6q97 (show fewer)
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Data from: Social selection is density dependent but makes little contribution to total selection in New Zealand giraffe weevils
Fisher, D. (Creator), Le Grice, R. (Creator) & Painting, C. (Creator), Zenodo, 2021
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4629670, https://zenodo.org/api/records/4629670
Dataset