Intense sexual conflict affects the female choice strategy in the gregarious desert locust
Description
The mating system in gregarious locusts provides an interesting case study for the development of mating systems, in the context of ecological conditions. The gregarious mating system of desert locusts is characterized by fierce intra-male competition and females that mated more than once. In this study, we tested different aspects of mate choice in relation to sexual conflict, such as choosiness level, antagonistic behavioral arm race, mate sampling strategy, male's fitness attribute, and the magnitude of the conflict. This paper provides both qualitative and numerical models of a sexual conflict during pre-copulatory interaction in locusts. This study elucidates the behavioral components of the sexual conflict in locusts and contributes to the current understanding of the eco-evolutionary contexts of sexual conflicts.