Meek males and fighting females: sexually-dimorphic antipredator behavior and locomotor performance is explained by morphology in bark scorpions (Centruroides vittatus).

ABSTRACT: Sexual dimorphism can result from sexual or ecological selective pressures, but the importance of alternative reproductive roles and trait compensation in generating phenotypic differences between the sexes is poorly understood. We evaluated morphological and behavioral sexual dimorphism in striped bark scorpions (Centruroides vittatus). We propose that reproductive roles have driven sexually dimorphic body mass in this species which produces sex differences in locomotor performance. Poor locomotor performance in the females (due to the burden of being gravid) favors compensatory aggression as part of an alternative defensive strategy, while male morphology is coadapted to support a sprinting-based defensive strategy. We tested the effects of sex and morphology on stinging and sprinting pe

SUBMITTER: Carlson BE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4037197 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature