Dsimulans_matechoice: Mate Copying in Drosophila simulans
In ecoteach: Educational Datasets for Ecology and Agriculture

Dsimulans_matechoice

R Documentation

Mate Copying in Drosophila simulans

Description

A dataset containing observations of mate choice decisions of Drosophila simulans females from three different populations to test whether they copy the mate choice of their conspecifics. The study tested whether female fruit flies acquire a sexual preference for a particular trait of a male after observing a single mating event. The experimental protocol involved a naïve, unmated female first observing a conspecific's mate choice between one artificially colored green and one artificially colored pink male, and subsequently being allowed to choose between two males of the same phenotype herself.

Usage

Dsimulans_matechoice

Format

A data frame with 383 rows and 14 variables:

Experimentor: Who conducted the experiment (SN: Sabine Nöbel, TK: Tim Kaufmann)
Date: Date of the experiment
TimeDemo: Beginning time of the experiment
Chamber: Position in the experimental box (A-F)
Device: Number of the experimental set-up
Strain: Fly population: Haale (Saale), Maison Salasar, or Deyme
Treatment: Experimental treatment: Mate copying (informed) or Control (uninformed)
Temp: Temperature (°C) in the experimental room
Humidity: Humidity (%) in the experimental room
ColourDemo: Color of the male copulating in the demonstration: Green or Pink
Colour1Court: Color of the male that started the first courtship: Green or Pink
Colour2Court: Color of the male that started the second courtship: Green or Pink
ColourTest: Color of the male copulating in the test phase: Green or Pink
MCS: Mate-copying score: "Same color" (observer female chose the same colored male as the demonstrator) or "Different color" (observer female chose a different colored male than the demonstrator)

Source

Nöbel, Sabine and Kaufmann, Tim (2025). Data from: Mate copying in Drosophila simulans. Dryad Digital Repository. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.5061/DRYAD.ZS7H44JMC")}

Examples


# Load the dataset
data(Dsimulans_matechoice)

# Basic exploration
head(Dsimulans_matechoice)
summary(Dsimulans_matechoice)

# Examine mate copying rates by treatment
table(Dsimulans_matechoice$Treatment, Dsimulans_matechoice$MCS)

# Compare mate copying across different strains (using base R)
mosaicplot(table(Dsimulans_matechoice$Strain, Dsimulans_matechoice$MCS),
           main = "Mate choice outcomes by strain",
           color = c("lightblue", "salmon"))
           
# Analyze if environmental conditions affect mate copying
boxplot(Temp ~ MCS, data = Dsimulans_matechoice, 
        main = "Temperature effects on mate copying",
        ylab = "Temperature (°C)")

ecoteach documentation built on June 29, 2025, 5:08 p.m.