Polyandry is a source of sexual conflict and males often try to limit female promiscuity. Consequently, male manipulation of receptivity via antiaphrodisiacs and copulatory plugs that prevent female remating can be a source of sexual conflict. This sexual conflict may be intensified when females must remate for fertility insurance. Male...
In some species, sperm is stored within the female reproductive tract for months to years, and yet remains viable to fertilize eggs and produce offspring. Female red-sided garter snakes store sperm for over seven months of winter dormancy. In previous work we demonstrated that these stored sperm account for an...
Female sexual promiscuity is a prevalent element of mating systems. One consequence of female sexual promiscuity is that male‐male competition often continues post‐copulation within the female’s reproductive tract. According to theory, the number of sperm a male inseminates relative to his rivals strongly predicts his fertilization success. However, sperm quality...
Sexual conflict over mating can result in sex specific morphologies and behaviors that
allow each sex to exert control over the outcome of reproduction. Genital traits, in
particular, are often directly involved in conflict interactions. Via genital manipulation,
we experimentally investigated whether genital traits in red-sided garter snakes influence
copulation...
Postcopulatory sexual selection—sperm competition and cryptic female choice—has become a major area of research over the past 40 years. Within this field there are many outstanding questions at every level of analysis, from proximate to ultimate. The fitness consequences for both sexes in the period after copulation and before fertilization...