An examination of courtship in salamanders helps resolve the puzzling problem of long-term evolutionary stasis in behavior. To address the companion issues of stasis and diversification, we summarize and synthesize courtship observations in Rhyacotriton and 13 genera of plethodontids. We use a modular analysis of courtship to identify conservative, as well as variable behavioral elements and se...

The nature of the courtship signalling used by a species is shaped by many factors, one of which is its habitat. Male blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus, have a courtship display in which they elevate their body by standing high on their legs, open their chelae and paddle their swimming legs. This courtship display is not reported in other swimming (portunid) crabs and is rarely expressed in labor...

Sexual signals consist of multiple components, each of which can contribute to mating decisions. Male field crickets use 2 acoustic signals in the context of mating: a calling song that attracts females from a distance and a courtship song that follows once a female makes physical contact with a male. The function of courtship is unclear because females have already chosen and approached a part...

Females of many species preferentially mate with males that produce courtship displays at a high intensity or rate; however, males do not always display at their maximum intensity during courtship. Evidence suggests that this behaviour may be adaptive in satin bowerbirds, because overly intense displays can disrupt courtship by startling females. Females signal the display intensity that they w...

In Drosophila, dopamine plays important roles in many biological processes as a neuromodulator. Previous studies showed that dopamine level could affect fly courtship behaviors. Disturbed dopamine level leads to abnormal courtship behavior in two different ways. Dopamine up-regulation induces male-male courtship behavior, while down-regulation of dopamine level results in increased sexual attra...

Cognitive processes like the formation of social memories can shape the nature of social interactions between conspecifics. Male songbirds use vocal signals during courtship interactions with females, but the degree to which social memory and familiarity influences the likelihood and structure of male courtship song remains largely unknown. Using a habituation-dishabituation paradigm, we found ...

Little is known about the genetic basis of naturally occurring variation for sexually selected behavioral traits. Drosophila melanogaster, with its rich repertoire of courtship behavior and genomic and genetic resources, is an excellent model organism for addressing this question. We assayed a genetically diverse panel of lines with full genome sequences, the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel,...

Male Golden-collared manakins (Manacus vitellinus) of Panama perform an acrobatic and noisy courtship display, the result of an intense process of sexual selection. These birds have a lek mating system with the reproductive success of males depending almost entirely on their courtship. We have studied this remarkable behavior and investigated seasonal cycles of testosterone secretion, hormonal ...

Genetically hard-wired neural mechanisms must enforce behavioral reproductive isolation because interspecies courtship is rare even in sexually naïve animals of most species. We find that the chemoreceptor Gr32a inhibits male D. melanogaster from courting diverse fruit fly species. Gr32a recognizes nonvolatile aversive cues present on these reproductively dead-end targets, and activity of Gr32a...

Courtship in Drosophila is used already to screen genes linked to memory-deficiency and neurodegeneration in humans. However the research community does not understand the mechanism which gives rise to courtship patterns. When a male fly encounters a female fly, he starts to follow her, licks her genitalia, sings a courtship song and eventually bends his abdomen to reach her genitalia [1]. Male...