Life history consequences of the prevalence of aggressive males carrying costly weapons

Life history consequences of the prevalence of aggressive males carrying costly weapons | Authorea try { document.documentElement.classList.add('js'); } catch (e) { } var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'G-8VDV14Y67G']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); Skip to main content Preprints Collections Wiley Open Research IET Open Research Ecological Society of Japan All Collections About About Authorea FAQs Contact Us Quick Search anywhere Search for preprint articles, keywords, etc. Search Search ADVANCED SEARCH SCROLL This is a preprint and has not been peer reviewed. Data may be preliminary. 16 March 2026 V1 Latest version Share on Life history consequences of the prevalence of aggressive males carrying costly weapons Authors : Neha Pandey 0000-0003-2002-8070 [email protected] , Przemysław Piekarczyk , Radosław Gmyrek , Norbert Czyżewski , Paulina Łukaszyk , Agnieszka Kruszynska , Sebastian Chmielewski , Tom Cameron 0000-0002-5875-1494 , and Jacek Radwan Authors Info & Affiliations https://doi.org/10.22541/au.177364114.40445664/v1 177 views 87 downloads Contents Abstract Supplementary Material Information & Authors Metrics & Citations View Options References Figures Tables Media Share Abstract Sexually selected weapons used in intra-sexual competition for mates are among the most striking animal features, but how their evolution affects life history traits closely correlated with fitness is not well understood. Here, we selected for or against the prevalence of a lethal weapon in a male-dimorphic mite Sancassania berlesei, and investigated how life-histories evolve in populations with high vs. low proportion of weaponized, aggressive males called fighters and non-weaponized, non-aggressive males called scramblers. After 25 generations of selection, females from fighter-selected lines showed higher early fecundity compared to females from lines selected for non-aggressive scrambler males. Furthermore, while fighter males took longer to reach adult stage compared to scrambler males in general, both the morphs and sexes matured earlier in fighter-selected lines compared to scrambler-selected ones. Larvae-to-adult survivorship was not affected by such selection treatment. Finally, we investigated whether adult survivorship under temperature stress was influenced by such selection treatment, and we found no difference between fighter-selected and scrambler-selected lines. Our results demonstrate that selection for male weapon and/or consequent prevalence of costly intra-sexual aggression leads to an increase in key components of fitness, with likely consequences for population dynamics. However, we found no evidence that the response to such selection affects how individuals cope with environmental challenge. Supplementary Material File (life_history_paper_13.03.2026.docx) Download 424.18 KB File (supplementary material_lifehistory paper_13.03.2026.docx) Download 120.82 KB Information & Authors Information Version history V1 Version 1 16 March 2026 Copyright This work is licensed under a Non Exclusive No Reuse License. Keywords ecological experiment evolutionary ecology experimental evolution invertebrate laboratory Authors Affiliations Neha Pandey 0000-0003-2002-8070 [email protected] Adam Mickiewicz University Faculty of Biology View all articles by this author Przemysław Piekarczyk Adam Mickiewicz University Faculty of Biology View all articles by this author Radosław Gmyrek Adam Mickiewicz University Faculty of Biology View all articles by this author Norbert Czyżewski Adam Mickiewicz University Faculty of Biology View all articles by this author Paulina Łukaszyk Adam Mickiewicz University Faculty of Biology View all articles by this author Agnieszka Kruszynska Adam Mickiewicz University Faculty of Biology View all articles by this author Sebastian Chmielewski Adam Mickiewicz University Faculty of Biology View all articles by this author Tom Cameron 0000-0002-5875-1494 University of Essex View all articles by this author Jacek Radwan Adam Mickiewicz University Faculty of Biology View all articles by this author Metrics & Citations Metrics Article Usage 177 views 87 downloads .FvxKWukQNSOunydq8rnd { width: 100px; } Citations Download citation Neha Pandey, Przemysław Piekarczyk, Radosław Gmyrek, et al. Life history consequences of the prevalence of aggressive males carrying costly weapons. Authorea . 16 March 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22541/au.177364114.40445664/v1 If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download. For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu . 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