caa a22 4500 477091067 CHVBK 20180405111515.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170330e19960501xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF01237684 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF01237684 Assortative mating by size: A meta-analysis of mating patterns in water striders [Elektronische Daten] [Göran Arnqvist, Locke Rowe, James Krupa, Andy Sih] Summary: Assortative mating by size is a common mating pattern that can be generated by several different behavioural mechanisms, with different evolutionary implications. Assortative mating is typically associated with sexual selection and has been regarded as an attribute of populations, species, mating systems or even higher order taxa. In most animal groups, however, appropriate analyses of assortative mating at these different levels are lacking and the causes and forms of assortative mating are poorly understood. Here, we analyse 45 different population level estimates of assortative mating and non-random mating by size in seven confamiliar species of water striders that share a common mating system. A hierarchical comparative analysis shows that virtually all the variance within the clade occurs among samples within species. We then employ meta-analysis to estimate the overall strength of assortative mating, to determine the form of assortative mating and to further assess potential differences among species as well as the probable causes of assortative mating in this group of insects. We found overall weak but highly significant positive assortative mating. We show that analyses of the degree of heteroscedasticity in plots of male versus female size are critical, since the evolutionary implications of ‘true' and ‘apparent' assortative mating differ widely and conclude that the positive assortative mating observed in water striders was of the ‘true' rather than the ‘apparent' form. Further, within samples, mating individuals were significantly larger than non-mating individuals in both males and females. All of these non-random mating patterns were consistent among species and we conclude that weak positive assortative mating by size is a general characteristic of those water strider species that share this mating system. We use our results to illustrate the importance of distinguishing between different forms of assortative mating, to discriminate between various behavioural causes of assortative mating and to assess potential sources of interpopulational variance in estimates of assortative mating. Finally, we discuss the value of using meta-analytic techniques for detecting overall patterns in multiple studies of non-random mating. Chapman & Hall, 1996 assortative mating nationallicence sexual selection nationallicence meta-analysis nationallicence genetic variation nationallicence non-random mating nationallicence Gerridae nationallicence Arnqvist Göran Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Castetter Hall, 87131-1091, Albuquerque, NM, USA aut Rowe Locke Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, M5S 1A1, Toronto, Ontario, Canada aut Krupa James Center for Evolutionary Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Kentucky, 40506-0225, Lexington, KY, USA aut Sih Andy Center for Evolutionary Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Kentucky, 40506-0225, Lexington, KY, USA aut Evolutionary Ecology Kluwer Academic Publishers 10/3(1996-05-01), 265-284 0269-7653 10:3<265 1996 10 10682 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01237684 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01237684 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Arnqvist Göran Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Castetter Hall, 87131-1091, Albuquerque, NM, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Rowe Locke Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, M5S 1A1, Toronto, Ontario, Canada aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Krupa James Center for Evolutionary Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Kentucky, 40506-0225, Lexington, KY, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Sih Andy Center for Evolutionary Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Kentucky, 40506-0225, Lexington, KY, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Evolutionary Ecology Kluwer Academic Publishers 10/3(1996-05-01), 265-284 0269-7653 10:3<265 1996 10 10682 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer