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Old male sex: large ejaculate, many sperm, but few offspring

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Abstract

Reproduction induces non-trivial costs, such that both males and females should choose their mates carefully and invest their resources prudently. Male performance and thus their investment into ejaculates are often predicted to decrease with age and mating frequency, which may in turn negatively affect female fitness and thus feedback on the attractiveness of old males. Such reproductive senescence may be mediated by changes in the males’ oxidative status. Here, we investigated the effects of male mating frequency and age on male reproduction and oxidative status, and the respective consequences for female reproduction. We used the tropical butterfly Bicyclus anynana, in which counterintuitively older males have a higher mating success than younger ones. In once-mated males, spermatophore mass and sperm numbers strongly increased with age, while antioxidant defences and oxidative damage declined with age. In repeatedly mated males, spermatophore mass and sperm number showed little variation being similar to young once-mated males, while antioxidant defences increased and oxidative damage decreased with mating frequency. Female reproductive success was highest when mating with young once-mated males, although these produced small spermatophores with low sperm numbers. Our findings suggest that in B. anynana, (1) ejaculate size and sperm number are not reliable proxies of male quality, (2) ejaculate quality diminishes with age and mating number, and that (3) old male mating advantage likely results from sexual conflict owing negative effects on female fitness.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the ‘Landesgraduiertenförderung’ of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany.

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The authors of this manuscript declare to have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Zoological Institute and Museum, Greifswald University, Johann-Sebastian-Bach Str. 11/12, 17489, Greifswald, Germany

    Tobias Kehl, Michaël Beaulieu, Alexander Kehl & Klaus Fischer

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  1. Tobias Kehl
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  2. Michaël Beaulieu
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  3. Alexander Kehl
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  4. Klaus Fischer
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Correspondence to Tobias Kehl.

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Communicated by N. Wedell

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Kehl, T., Beaulieu, M., Kehl, A. et al. Old male sex: large ejaculate, many sperm, but few offspring. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 69, 1543–1552 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-1966-1

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