
The Mate Selection Trapdoor - jseliger
http://nautil.us/issue/54/the-unspoken/the-mate-selection-trapdoor
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bambax
Great article. This part is esp. insightful IMHO

> _When the chuck evolved, it was lucky enough to exploit a hidden preference,
> but we now see it was not uniquely attractive. Many different kinds of
> sounds might have worked just as well; the luck of the chuck was being
> first._

Many secondary sexual attributes that we consider to be a major marker of a
species likely evolved by accident. Females of a species may be attracted to
something out of the ordinary (feathers on the head, an oddly shaped fin,
etc.), and the first extraordinary trait wins.

Also, accidents happen. Male Australian beetles find empty beer bottles
incredibly attractive. Or they used to, until the shape of the bottle was
changed to alleviate the problem.

Cf.
[https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2013/06/19/193493225/t...](https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2013/06/19/193493225/the-
love-that-dared-not-speak-its-name-of-a-beetle-for-a-beer-bottle)

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stevebmark
has anything good ever been published on nautilus? do they just game HN to
make it to the front page repeatedly?

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sandinmytea
Looking forward to no more.

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sandinmytea
As in, the cessation of all consciousness. This topic moreso than any other!
Can't wait for the end of this senseless and horrid concern.

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sexyfart
You okay?

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Simon_says
> It seems downright silly and certainly maladaptive for an animal to have sex
> with a plant.

You'd expect that, wouldn't you, but recent events say otherwise.

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rectangletangle
_Since female bees are hard to come by, then it is better for the male bee to
be too eager to mate, and sometimes mate with flowers, rather than too
discriminating, and sometimes pass up real female bees_

I guess they favor recall, over precision.

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oh_sigh
Isn't this just 'sperm is cheap, eggs are expensive'?

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rectangletangle
That's probably the ultimate cause of the behavior.

However, most insects are heavily r selected (low parental investment, lots of
offspring). So the cost of eggs/parental investment relative to sperm isn't
nearly as polarized as in a K selected species, e.g., humans, whales,
elephants.

Though it would seem even with a slight difference in the metabolic cost of
eggs vs sperm, and eons of time, the bee's "search algorithm" would be
optimized/directionally selected toward favoring recall. A similar dynamic
also works behind Gause's law, where two competing species can't sustain a
constant population while occupying the same ecological niche, over a multi-
generational timescale.

