Sexual Selection: Perspectives and Models from the Neotropics presents new sexual selection research based upon neotropical species. As neotropical regions are destroyed at an alarming rate, with an estimated 140 species of rainforest plants and animals going extinct every day, it is important to bring neotropical research to the fore now.
Sexual selection occurs when the male or female of a species is attracted by certain characteristics such as form, color or behavior. When those features lead to a greater probability of successful mating, they become more prominent in the species. Although most theoretical concepts concerning sexual selection and reproductive strategies are based upon North American and European fauna, the Neotropical region encompasses much more biodiversity, with as many as 15,000 plant and animal species in a single acre of rain forest.
This book illustrates concepts in sexual selection through themes ranging from female cryptic choice in insects, sexual conflict in fish, interaction between sexual selection and the immune system, nuptial gifts, visual and acoustic sexual signaling, parental investment, to alternative mating strategies, among others. These approaches distinguish Sexual Selection from current publications in sexual selection, mainly because of the latitudinal and taxonomic focus, so that readers will be introduced to systems mostly unknown outside the tropics, several of which bring into question some well-established patterns for temperate regions.
Macroecology of sexual selection: large-scale influence of climate on sexually selected traits Rogelio Macías-Ordóñez, Glauco Machado and Regina H. Macedo Sexual selection in Neotropical species: rules and exceptions Alfredo V. Peretti Secondary sexual traits, immune response, parasites and pathogens: the importance of studying Neotropical insects Jorge Contreras-Garduño and Jorge Canales Lazcano 4. Territorial mating systems in butterflies: what we know and what Neotropical species can show Paulo Enrique Cardoso Peixoto and Luis Mendoza-Cuenca 5. Macroecology of harvestman mating systems Bruno A. Buzatto, Rogelio Macías-Ordóñez, and Glauco Machado 6. Adventurous females and demanding males: sex role reversal in a Neotropical spider Anita Aisenberg 7. Ecology and evolution of nuptial gifts in spiders Maria J. Albo, Søren Toft, and Trine Bilde 8. Paternal care and sexual selection in arthropods Gustavo S. Requena, Roberto Munguía-Steyer, and Glauco Machado 9. Underestimating the role of female preference and sexual conflict in the evolution of ARTs in fishes: Insights from a clade of Neotropical fishes Molly R. Morris and Oscar Rios-Cárdenas 10. Mode of reproduction, mate choice and species richness in Goodeid fish Constantino Macías Garcia 11. Ecology, parental care and mating systems in Neotropical poison frogs James Tumulty and Kyle Summers 12. Testosterone, territoriality and social interactions in Neotropical birds John C. Wingfield, Rodrigo A. Vasquez, and Ignacio T. Moore 13. Sexual selection and the evolution of vocal mating signals: lessons from Neotropical songbirds Jeffrey Podos 14. Impacts of mating behavior on plant-animal seed dispersal mutualisms: a case study from a Neotropical lek-breeding bird Jordan Karubian and Renata Durães 15. Flights of fancy: mating behavior and ornamentation in a Neotropical bird Lilian Manica, Jefferson Graves, Jeffrey Podos and Regina Macedo 16. Sexual selection in Neotropical bats Christian C. Voigt
Reviews for Sexual Selection: Perspectives and Models from the Neotropics
""We are left convinced of the important place of the neotropics in sexual selection theory."" --The Quarterly Review of Biology
