Exam 9: Reproductive Behavior

Female fruit flies prefer to mate with large males. This mate choice lowers the female's longevity and reduces survival of her offspring. This is an example of

Male bedbugs use a spear-like organ to stab females in the abdomen before injecting his sperm, leaving a wound and causing possible infections. How does this harmful male trait persist, despite its negative impact on female fitness? If this species is engaged in a sexual arms race, what prediction can we make about the female bedbug's physiology or behavior?

Under what conditions would you predict sexual selection to act more strongly on female than male traits?

A male spider that amputates his own sperm-transferring pedipalps during copulation so as to block the female's genital opening is an example of