Understanding the evolution of mating decisions is crucial to understanding the mechanisms that have created new species by sexual selection. The studies proposed in this grant will use confocal microscopy to quantify the docking patterns of damselfly male and female structures in mate choice, behavioral experiments to determine the persistence of mating preferences when males of the same species are held at different frequencies, and determine the degree to which natural hybridization occurs in nature.
Ultimately new species come into existence because females develop mating preferences that include some males and exclude others - this is the definition of the Biological Species Concept. These studies test fundamental assumptions about the properties of breeding systems that shape the evolution of these mating decisions and the importance of species interactions to those responses. These studies also give fundamental insights into how females discriminate among males to enforce the genetic integrity of species and thus the relationship of these mechanisms to speciation. Moreover, taken with past phylogenetic and ecological studies, these experiments will give a comprehensive picture of the adaptation and diversification of the Enallagma damselflies over the past 10-15 million years. The broader impacts of the proposed activity are to engage undergraduates in all components of the scientific research enterprise, and to contribute to the scientific curriculum of local K-12 schools.
