Unraveling the function and evolutionary history of multimodal signaling is a difficult, yet common task of much research in animal communication. Here, I investigated multimodal signal function in the visual and seismic courtship display of the wolf spider Schizocosa stridulans and found that only the seismic courtship signal was important for mating success. First, copulation frequency was as...

We consider a male and a female in a courtship encounter over continuous time. Both parties pay participation costs per unit time. The game ends when either one or other of the parties quits or the female accepts the male as a mate. We assume that there is a binary variable which determines whether the male is a "good" or "bad" type from the female's point of view, according to either his condi...

Courtship, Chasing, Females, Tracking, D. melanogaster Both male and female Drosophila melanogaster possess systems which enable them to track other walking flies visually. Males use this system predominantly in courtship; females, when of sufficient age but still unmated, have been observed to track other flies, at rates of up to 18 bouts per hour. This behaviour is most conveniently studied i...

Eavesdropping on communication is widespread among animals, e.g. bystanders observing male-male contests, female mate choice copying and predator detection of prey cues. Some animals also exhibit signal matching, e.g. overlapping of competitors' acoustic signals in aggressive interactions. Fewer studies have examined male eavesdropping on conspecific courtship, although males could increase mat...

Keywords: courtship Drosophila melanogaster fruit fly homosexual behaviour learning The mechanisms maintaining homosexual behaviour in animals are not well understood. In fruit flies, where maleemale courtship is prevalent, it has been suggested that young males gain from being courted by mature males, perhaps through learning. I conducted two series of experiments to critically examine why mat...

Male fruit flies touch females during courtship. A new study finds that pheromone input received through the male's foreleg allows him to generate the courtship song appealing to female flies. This activity involves sexually dimorphic fruitless-expressing neurons in the brain.

In 1975 Kendon described the literature on human courtship as almost nonexistent. Almost ten years later, Hinde (1984) found our knowledge still fragmentary, and, moreover, in need of an integrative framework. Indeed, most of what we know about courtship originates from just a handful of direct observations. What remains consists of interviews carried out at different stages of courtship. There...

Mormyrid electric fish rely on the waveform of their electric organ discharges (EODs) for communicating species, sex, and social status, while they use the sequences of pulse intervals (SPIs) for communicating rapidly changing behavioral states and motivation. Little is known of electric signaling during courtship behavior because of two major difficulties: (1) the fish are not easily bred in c...

Reproductivemales encounter potential mates under a range of circumstances that in uence the costs, beneŽ ts or feasibility of alternative courtship tactics. Thus, males may be under strong selection to  exibly modify their behaviour.Red-sided garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) in Manitoba overwinter in communal dens, and court and mate in large aggregations in early spring. The n...