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Original Articles

Female mate preference for egg-caring males in the giant water bug Diplonychus rusticus (Heteroptera Belostomatidae)

ORCID Icon, , &
Pages 477-484
Received 24 May 2017
Accepted 17 Jan 2018
Published online: 05 Mar 2018
 

Paternal care can be maintained under sexual selection in case that it helps caring males to attract more mates. Females of two back-brooding water bug species, the belostomatids Appasus major and A. japonicus, prefer egg-caring males over non-caring males. Here, we tested under laboratory and field conditions whether females of another belostomatid species, Diplonychus rusticus, prefer egg-caring males as mating partners. Caring males received more eggs from females than non-caring males under the both conditions. Our results suggest that sexual selection plays an important role in maintaining paternal care not only in species of the genus Appasus, but also in the genus Diplonychus.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are grateful to the staff from the Ho Chi Minh Pasteur Institute, the Centre for Ecological Research, Kyoto University and the Biological Laboratory, Faculty of Education, Nagasaki University. We also thank Glauco Machado and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions that were helpful for improving the manuscript.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/03949370.2018.1438517

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows / 22-4].
 

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