Sexual Selection: Perspectives and Models from the Neotropics presents new sexual selection research based upon neotropical species. As neotropical regions are destroyed at an alarming rate, with an estimated 140 species of rainforest plants and animals going extinct every day, it is important to bring neotropical research to the fore now. Sexual selection occurs when the male or female of a species is attracted by certain characteristics such as form, color or behavior. When those features lead to a greater probability of successful mating, they become more prominent in the species. Although most theoretical concepts concerning sexual selection and reproductive strategies are based upon North American and European fauna, the Neotropical region encompasses much more biodiversity, with as many as 15,000 plant and animal species in a single acre of rain forest.
Sexual Selection: Perspectives and Models from the Neotropics illustrates concepts in sexual selection through themes ranging from female cryptic choice in insects, sexual conflict in fish, interaction between sexual selection and the immune system, nuptial gifts, visual and acoustic sexual signaling, parental investment, to alternative mating strategies, among others. These approaches distinguish Sexual Selection: Perspectives and Models from the Neotropics from current publications in sexual selection, mainly because of the latitudinal and taxonomic focus, so that readers will be introduced to systems mostly unknown outside the tropics, several of which bring into question some well-established patterns for temperate regions. It synthesizes sexual selection research on species from the Neotropics. It combines different perspectives and levels of analysis using a broad taxonomic basis, introducing readers to systems mostly unknown outside the tropics and bringing into question well-established patterns for temperate regions. It includes contributions exploring concepts and theory as well as discussions on a variety of Neotropical vertebrates and invertebrates, such as insects, fish, arthropods and birds.
1. Sexual selection in the Tropics
Rogelio Macías-Ordóñez, Glauco Machado, and Regina H. Macedo
2. Sexual selection in Neotropical species: rules and exceptions
Alfredo V. Peretti
3. The challenges and future of science in the Neotropics
Regina H. Macedo
4. Tropical environments may promote faster damselfly genitalic evolution
Alex Córdoba-Aguilar
5. Sexual selection and genital coevolution in Lepidoptera
Carlos Cordero Macedo, Nubia Caballero, Victor Sánchez, and James S. Miller
6. Neuroimmunoendocrinology and sexual selection: how can tropical insects improve this area
Jorge Contreras Garduño, Jorge Canales Lazcano, and Shelly Adamo
7. Mating systems, reproductive tactics and territorial disputes in butterflies
Paulo Enrique Cardoso Peixoto and Luis Mendoza Cuenca
8. Sexual selection and paternal care in Neotropical arthropods
Roberto Munguía-Steyer , Gustavo S. Requena, and Glauco Machado
9. The mating systems of Neotropical harvestmen
Bruno A. Buzatto, Glauco Machado, and Rogelio Macías-Ordóñez
10. Sex role reversal in Neotropical spiders
Anita Aisenberg
11. Nuptial gifts in Neotropical spiders
Luiz Ernesto Costa-Schmidt
12. The harlequin beetle riding pseudoscorpion: sexual selection in an environmentally and genetically heterogeneous context
Jeanne A. Zeh and David W. Zeh
13. Reproductive strategies in the swordtail fishes
Molly Morris and Oscar Rios Cárdenas
14. Female mate choice and sexual conflict in fish
Constantino Macias Garcia
15. Sexual signaling in a colorful world: the neotropical poison frogs
Adolfo Amézquita
16. Environmental and physiological control of reproduction in birds from different latitudes
John Wingfield, Michaela Hau, and Ignacio Moore
17. Operation of sexual selection in cooperative breeding birds
Raphael I. Dias, Michael Webster, and Regina H. Macedo
18. Adaptive divergence, mating signal evolution, and ecological speciation
Jeff Podos
19. Lekking species and sexual signaling in Neotropical birds
Jordan Karubian and Renata Durães
20. Social organization and mating system in Neotropical primates
Patricia Izar