Summary: Edvardsson & Arnqvist (2000)

To stimulate females, males may engage in courtship behaviours during and after copulation. When females impose biases on postmating paternity success, thereby varying male reproductive success, these behaviours may evolve by cryptic female choice. Edvardsson & Arnqvist (2000) maniuplated female perception of male courtship behaviour in the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum by male tarsal ablation (males could still perform courtship behaviour but could not stimulate females) and quantified male copulatory behaviour to determine whether females cause positive relationships between male copulatory courtship behaviour and relative fertilization success. They found that leg manipulation did not impair male vigour or number of sperm transferred. However, they did find a positive relationship between intensity of courtship and relative fertilization success: manipulated males had lower fertilization success. Female perception of male courtship behaviour, rather than actual male behaviour, governs sperm competition, showing that females impose biases on postmating paternity success and that copulatory courtship is under sexual selection (typically concerned with precopulatory processes and variance in male mating success) by cryptic female choice.