Olivia Feagles, PhD Dissertator working within the Höbel Lab, here at UW-Milwaukee, will present a talk about her work entitled, “The nuances of variation in female treefrog mate choice: independent behavior and potential influencers.”

The abstract for the talk is as follows:

Mate choice is a key contributor to sexual selection, driving the evolution of elaborate male ornamentation and conspecific communication. Mating decisions arise from the interaction of several components, such as preferences (attractiveness ranking of prospective mates) and choosiness (effort invested in obtaining the preferred mate). Using Eastern Gray Treefrogs, I first investigate whether, and how, preferences and choosiness interact because it is crucial for understanding their contributions to selection. However, mate decisions can be fickle and inconsistent, which has wide-ranging evolutionary implications. Consequently, I also address the presence and relevance of variation among and within individuals through the exploration of several physiological, environmental, and static factors as potential sources of variation. Understanding the distinctions between and variation within mate choice behaviors is necessary to gain a complete understanding of how mate choice contributes to sexual selection and speciation.

The presentation will begin at 4:00 PM in Lapham Hall N101, preceded by an informal reception from 3:45 – 4:00 PM.