Sexual conflict and sexual networks in bed bugs: the fitness cost of traumatic insemination, female avoidance and male mate choice.

Sexual conflict is prevalent among animals and is primarily caused by the fact that the optimal mating rates are often higher in males than in females. While there is a growing appreciation that females can also gain from multiple matings, we still know relatively little about which sex controls the observed mating rates and how close it is to the optimal female mating rates. To address this issue, we tracked female bed bugs () inseminated daily versus weekly and found that weekly inseminated females lived longer and produced over 50% more offspring.

Sexual conflict and social networks in bed bugs: effects of social experience.

Living in groups can provide essential experience that improves sexual performance and reproductive success. While the effects of social experience have drawn considerable scientific interest, commonly used behavioral assays often do not capture the dynamic nature of interactions within a social group. Here, we conducted 3 experiments using a social network framework to test whether social experience during early adulthood improves the sexual competence of bed bugs () when placed in a complex and competitive group environment.