2. Behavioral Biology TALKS - Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

Based on these new findings, we assume a function of the titillators in stimulation
during copulation and discuss cryptic female choice as possible evolutionary selection
force involved.
Vahed, K., Lehmann, A. W., Gilbert, J.D.J., Lehmann, G.U.C. (2011): J. of Evol. Biol. (24): 1960-68.
����89 Marion Mehlis
The relationship between breeding coloration, sperm morphology and sperm
motility in three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
Authors: Marion Mehlis 1 , Lukas K. Hilke 1 , Theo C. M. Bakker 1
Affiliations: 1 Institute for Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, University of Bonn
Recent studies have shown that sexually selected traits signal sperm quality and
hence male fertilization success. The expression of male sexual ornamentation and
associated sperm characteristics often depend on an individual’s ability to cope with
oxidative stress. In many species, the development of breeding coloration is based on
carotenoid pigments, which have to be obtained from the diet. When carotenoid
availability is limited, these pigments are traded off between fitness components
such as sexual ornamentation and immunoresponsive capacities.
The three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) is a well-studied model species
subject to sperm competition, in which males develop a conspicuous carotenoidbased
coloration in the cheek region during the breeding season. The relationship
between sexual ornamentation and sperm characteristics was studied in wild-caught
and laboratory-bred stickleback males from the same population. Well-established
methods for the quantification of sperm motility, sperm morphology and breeding
coloration variables were used under standardized laboratory conditions. Data of the
current study revealed that breeding coloration (e.g. carotenoid chroma) is
significantly positively correlated with sperm motility indicating the honesty of the
carotenoid-based breeding coloration in three-spined stickleback males. Moreover,
the results showed that some sperm morphology traits such as head to tail length
ratio are good proxies for sperm motility.
����90 Michael Mende
Natural History Collections as a window to the past - Historic-DNA phylogeography
of the Spurge Hawkmoth (Lepidoptera, Sphingidae) in the Central Mediterranean
Authors: Michael B. Mende 1 , Anna K. Hundsdoerfer 2
Affiliations: 1 Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden, Museum für
Tierkunde; 2 Biodiversität and Klima Forschungszentrum (BiK-F), Frankfurt am Main
The Hyles euphorbiae species comprises six distinct mitochondrial lineages in the
Mediterranean area, based on about 2300bp of the COI/II genes. These show a
phylogeographic structure reflecting the refuges during the ice ages and subsequent
postglacial range expansions. Today all of Southern Italy is exclusively inhabited by a
lineage, provisionally titled “italica”, which is nearly solely confined to this area.
Northeast of the Northern Apennines it is replaced by the two European mainland
lineages, euphorbiae and “enigmatica”, most probably colonizers from two Eastern
European glacial refuges. Paradoxically, the Maltese population is composed of three
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