Facultative polyandry protects females from compromised male fertility caused by heatwave conditions
Why is polyandry such a common mating behaviour when it exposes females to a range of significant fitness costs? Here, we investigated whether polyandry protects females against reduced male fertility caused by thermal stress from heatwave conditions. Sperm production and function are vulnerable to heat, and heatwave conditions are forecast to increase as our climate warms, so we examined these effects on female reproduction and mating behaviour in the flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, a promiscuous ectotherm model in which fertility is damaged by environmental warming.
Violence against women is a violation of human rights, crossing all cultures, classes, levels of education, earnings, ethnic and age groups. We conducted a retrospective study to review forensic records of sexual assault examinations carried out in different Italian health facilities and to correlate these findings with the results of the forensic DNA analyses.
