The influence of sexual and larval selection on the maintenance of polymorphism at the sepia locus in Drosophila melanogaster.

Sexual selection is measured between two strains of Drosophila melanogaster: a wild strain and a strain mutant at the sepia locus. Frequency-dependent male mating was found to successful, whereas the female genotype exerted no influence. The rarer the male genotype becomes, the greater is its mating success. A selection model is build for this behavior characteristic in which selection operates differently in the two sexes. The genetic consequencies of this odel upon the maintenance of genetic polymorphism at the sepia locus are compared to experimental data from previous population cage studies. The fit obtained with this sexual selection model is compared to that of the larval selection model previously investigated. A model composed of both sexual and larval components of fitness is presented. The role that each major selection component is expected to play in experimental populations as the gene frequency changes is discussed. Sexual selection leads to an equilibrium level higher than larval selection, and the combined model is very close to the experimental values.