Dr. Scott Sakaluk, Distinguished Professor of Zoology at Illinois State University, will present a talk about his work entitled, “Food Fight: Sexual Conflict and the Evolution of Nuptial Gifts.”

The abstract is as follows:

Nuptial food gifts are an integral feature of the mating systems of a wide variety of insects. A pervasive feature of the majority of these gifts is that they afford the male direct access to the female’s physiology. Although in some cases such gifts may represent a form of nutritional investment in females, the alternative hypothesis posits that nuptial food gifts may allow males to manipulate female physiology in favor of male interests. This hypothesis predicts that the chemical composition of nuptial food gifts should be driven by a sexual conflict over offspring paternity. I evaluate this hypothesis by reviewing our accumulated studies on decorated crickets, Gryllodes sigillatus, a species that has illuminated key elements of this evolutionary arms race.

The presentation will begin at 4:00 PM in Lapham Hall S160, preceded by an informal Q&A from 3:45 – 4:00 PM.