Abstract

COSTA, Marcelo; MATEUS, Rogério Pincela; MOURA, Mauricio Osvaldo  and  MACHADO, Luciana Paes de Barros. Adult sex ratio effects on male survivorship of Drosophila melanogaster Meigen (Diptera, Drosophilidae). Rev. Bras. entomol. [online]. 2010, vol.54, n.3, pp. 446-449. ISSN 0085-5626.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0085-56262010000300015.

The behavioral biology has a central role in evolutionary biology mainly because the antagonistic relations that occur in the sexual reproduction. One involves the effect of reproduction on the future life expectation. In this scenario, changes in male operational sex ratio could lead to an increase in mortality due to costs associated with excessive courtship and mating displays. Thus, this work experimentally altered the male sex ratio of Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, 1830, to determine its impact on mortality. The results indicated that mortality increases as the sex ratio changes, including modifications in the survivorship curve type and in the curve concavity, measured by entropy.

Keywords : Adult sex ratio; entropy; survivor.