Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction to animal contests
- 2 Dyadic contests: modelling fights between two individuals
- 3 Models of group or multi-party contests
- 4 Analysis of animal contest data
- 5 Contests in crustaceans: assessments, decisions and their underlying mechanisms
- 6 Aggression in spiders
- 7 Contest behaviour in butterflies: fighting without weapons
- 8 Hymenopteran contests and agonistic behaviour
- 9 Horns and the role of development in the evolution of beetle contests
- 10 Contest behaviour in fishes
- 11 Contests in amphibians
- 12 Lizards and other reptiles as model systems for the study of contest behaviour
- 13 Bird contests: from hatching to fertilisation
- 14 Contest behaviour in ungulates
- 15 Human contests: evolutionary theory and the analysis of interstate war
- 16 Prospects for animal contests
- Index
- References
9 - Horns and the role of development in the evolution of beetle contests
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction to animal contests
- 2 Dyadic contests: modelling fights between two individuals
- 3 Models of group or multi-party contests
- 4 Analysis of animal contest data
- 5 Contests in crustaceans: assessments, decisions and their underlying mechanisms
- 6 Aggression in spiders
- 7 Contest behaviour in butterflies: fighting without weapons
- 8 Hymenopteran contests and agonistic behaviour
- 9 Horns and the role of development in the evolution of beetle contests
- 10 Contest behaviour in fishes
- 11 Contests in amphibians
- 12 Lizards and other reptiles as model systems for the study of contest behaviour
- 13 Bird contests: from hatching to fertilisation
- 14 Contest behaviour in ungulates
- 15 Human contests: evolutionary theory and the analysis of interstate war
- 16 Prospects for animal contests
- Index
- References
Summary
Summary
Contests between beetles have attracted the attention of biologists and natural historians for a long time. Contests almost always involve males competing for females or for access to resources crucial to female reproduction. With only a few exceptions, beetle contests typically involve non-injurious trials of strength. In this chapter we begin by reviewing the literature on beetle contests with an emphasis on how ecological conditions and resource availability have shaped the nature of contests in diverse beetle families. We then focus on two inter-related aspects of the biology of beetle contests that have received particular and recent attention: the evolution of alternative reproductive tactics and the origin and diversification of weaponry. We describe the nature of alternative reproductive tactics in a range of beetle families, and explore the developmental and physiological mechanisms that have mediated contest diversification within and between species. We then explore the evolutionary developmental biology of weaponry in beetles, focusing on the elaborate horns of scarabs. Specifically, we describe how horns are built during development, and explore the relative contributions of conserved developmental mechanisms and novel developmental properties to the origin and diversification of horns. We then highlight several instances in which developmental studies have assisted our understanding of the evolution and ecology of contest behaviour, such as the ancestry of alternative phenotypes and sexual dimorphisms, the costs of weaponry and constraints and biases in the diversification of beetle weapons. Combining rich morphological and behavioural diversity with a diverse genetic and developmental toolbox, beetles emerge as a powerful model system in which to explore the causes, mechanisms and consequences of contest behaviour in nature.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Animal Contests , pp. 178 - 198Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013
References
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