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The exam from MATH126 (Math) in April 2012

The exam from ENGL217 (English) taught by Sarah Kastner in April 2017

The exam from ENPH490 (Engineering Physics) in April 2012

The exam from GRMN102 (German) in April 2013

The exam from MATH112 (Mathematics) in April 2011

The exam from ENPH460 (Dept of Physics, Eng Ph & Astr) / PHYS460 (Dept of Physics, Eng Ph & Astr) taught by Stephen Hughes in April 2018

The exam from ENGL497 (English) in April 2012

The exam from CIVL371 (Civil Engineering) in December 2010

Social context, such as mate availability and perceived competition, can influence a male’s mating tactics. In Drosophila melanogaster most research has investigated how physical interactions and the perceived levels of sperm competition alter mating behaviour. I wanted to know if males would respond to the perceived social environments without the presence of physical interaction. Using a unique apparatus, I altered focal males’ social context by separating them physically from a social environment using a screen. Focal males were either in: (i) the presence of rival males and mates, (ii) the presence of potential mates only, (iii) isolation, or (iv) the presence of rival males only. I also manipulated the period the focal male was conditioned to a social environment to assess if the timing of cues is important. My findings suggest that the duration of acclimation alters male mating tactics. Regardless of social environment, the duration a male was conditioned influenced copulation latency. Males that were conditioned to their social environment for the duration of the experiment had differing copulation latencies between environments. Males held in isolation took longer to successfully court females, and transferred less sperm during mating then experimental males in the presence of rival males. Additionally, copulation duration correlated with the number of sperm transferred. Overall, my results suggest that the social environment and the perceived competition level affect mating strategies even without physical interactions. Since this apparatus may trick flies into believing they are a part of a social group, while controlling the male mating status, future work could examine behavioural, genetic and physiological phenotype effects of the social environment for both sexes.

The exam from POLS244 (Political Studies) in December 2015