Bretta Speck, PhD candidate in the Department of Biological Sciences at UW-Milwaukee, will present a talk about her research, entitled ‘Architecture of Mate Choice Decisions in Enchenopa Treehoppers.’

Mate selection is one of the most important choices a female can make for herself and her offspring. Variation in mate choice decisions has consequences for maintenance of and the diversity within a population and the promotion of divergence between populations. Mate choice decisions arise from the interaction of two main components: “mate preferences” (the relative attractiveness of a potential mate) and “choosiness” (the effort put into procuring a preferred mate). Bretta’s dissertation analyzes the relationship between the components involved in female mate choice decisions. She took a three-pronged approach. First, she investigated how Enchenopa females process a male mating signal with multiple elements. This was done by presenting females with different arrangements of signal elements and recording the female responses. Bretta found that female treehoppers use rules for acceptable element combinations, which allows them to process complex signals when selecting mates. Second, she looked at how the social context may influence or alter the attractiveness of a male when he is compared to competitors. Third, Bretta investigated how mate preferences and choosiness relate to each other and how they change over the lifetime of a female, due to her desire to ensure mating success. Bretta’s dissertation deepens the breadth of knowledge about how mate choice decisions are made, which in turn helps us understand the consequences of variation in such decisions for the maintenance of population diversity and the promotion of speciation.

The presentation will begin at 4:00 PM in Lapham N101 and via Microsoft Teams, preceded by an informal Q&A from 3:45 – 4:00 PM. If you aren’t able to join in person, you can click here to join via Teams.