[Odonata-l] Sexual Dimorphism

[PAMELA HUNT]

Hi again,

I'll admit being fairly new at this game, and at some point my bird 
analogies will run up against a wall, but it's worth considering that 
females are not necassarily chosing males but chosing territories 
(=oviposition sites). Glenn's verbal picture of S. hineana makes this point 
nicely.  Is it the MALE the female is chosing or the spot of sphagnum he has 
staked out?  Such an assumption has been made repeatedly with birds, and 
much of the time a detailed study of female behavior has proven it wrong 
(Bobolinks and Black-throated Blue Warblers come to mind). Males are 
fighting over their territories, so in the end one assumes that the "better" 
male gets to better spot, so there is something of a correlation between 
male quality and territory quality. Which is the female chosing?  Who knows, 
and I imagine that a detailed study of female behavior in odonata would be a 
challange indeed.  But I'd be willing to go out on a theoretical limb here 
and propose that the quality of an oviposition site trumps any variation in 
how a given male might be perceived.  Of course, Glenn's S. scudderi example 
might be a different system entirely, since oviposition wouldn't be 
occurring near the males' chosen rock in mid-stream.

So on to a related question, could any odonata be considered to form leks?

Pam Hunt
Penacook, NH