The influence of male wing shape on mating success in Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila melanogaster males court females through a series of steps. In one of these steps, the male vibrates his wings to produce a courtship song that is species specific. Variation in the shape of Drosophila wings has been described among populations and species, but it is still unknown whether this variation influences the courtship process. In our laboratory, replicate strains were obtained from a natural population of D. melanogaster by artificial selection for rounded or elongated wing shapes. We used those strains and a nonselected strain to test the influence of wing shape on male mating success. We observed significantly higher success by males from strains with elongated wings when competing with those with rounded or nonselected wings, regardless of the female type. In addition, smaller males were more successful. We also recorded the courtship songs produced by males of different wing shape strains. We detected some variation among the courtship song produced by males depending on the original strain. However, this difference did not fully explain the success of males with elongated wings. Our results therefore show that wing shape has to be considered as influencing male mating success in Drosophila.