Figure 1.

Two of the four treatments employed (i.e., the “one male” and the “four males” treatments) as an example to illustrate the experimental designed used. We staged matings between virgin females and virgin males in which we varied the number of rival males the experimental male had access to immediately preceding matings. Each male was introduced in a small 5 cm diameter arena with another male for 3 min and then isolated in a new blank arena for 2 min. We repeated this protocol four times in a row (i.e., overall 20 min) before introducing the experimental male in a mating arena with a virgin female. Each male was subject to one of four different treatments. In the “one male” treatment, the male introduced during the four 3 min periods was always the same. In the “two males” treatment, we used two different males that were alternated. In the “three males” treatment, we introduced three different males and repeated one of the first two males in the last presentation. Finally, in the “four male” treatment each introduced male was different.