W.David Weber

A Fisher Lab alum has published his first peer-reviewed paper on black soldier flies. Way to go @ConnnorAuth link.springer.com/article/10.100…

And does this alter perceived sperm competition and mating duration? YES Mating duration was >2mins longer in males on clustered resources Closer patches ➡️ closer males ➡️ longer mating sciencedirect.com/science/articl… @mdfthom @jonrbridle @Elsevier

4/4 Work focusing on the incredible green anole #anoles #lizards #herpetology, is what led my curiosity toward reproductive biology. Thank you, Janson Jones @floridensis, for lending me these great photos. floridensis.com

3/4 By combining multiple methodologies we found individual male green anoles may distribute themselves according to size in the small urban population of Washington Square Park #NOLA, regardless of how they are related to one another.

1/4 My mentors from the University of New Orleans @UofNO, Drs N Anthony and S Lailvaux @SLailvaux, and I have a new article “Size but not relatedness drives the spatial distribution of males within an urban population of Anolis carolinensis lizards” onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…

@chanishelton @jychromatic Great question! Yes, they were conspecifics during the interactions. The monogamous P. polionotus residents were by far more antagonistic to the intruder. The promiscuous P. maniculatus seem a little uninterested in the intruders.

@WDavidWeber Was the "intruder" the same species as the "resident " it interacted with? Also, which species has more severe agnostic behavior? @jychromatic

1/6 Social dynamics can be stressful, especially when vying for a mate. Ever wondered if that stress can affect reproductive traits? We did too! So, we tested it in two species of Peromyscus mice: the monogamous P. polionotus and the promiscuous P. maniculatus. #AnimBehav2021

@lacirino2 We were not really looking at that aspect, but that would certainly be interesting. From previous literature I would suspect there to be an increased investment, with the potential of more mating opportunity. That would be an interesting study and not all that difficult to do.

6/6 We see striking trait variation within treatment groups, which we predict is correlated with behavioral variation among males in the intruder introductions. We are currently scoring agonistic behaviors from videos, so stay tuned for more exciting results. #AnimBehav2021

5/6 We expected to see greater differences in the quality and quantity of sperm produced by males under variable social conditions. Perhaps not surprisingly, we also saw few differences in testosterone and corticosterone levels at the conclusion of the study. #AnimBehav2021

I have had a tremendous year so far obtaining research funding. An enormous part of that is due to my extraordinary PhD advisor Dr. Heidi Fisher @heidisfisher. Every day I am amazed that I have been given the honor of working with her.

I would like to take a minute to thank Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society @SigmaXiSociety for giving me additional support for my research on how social dynamics drive variation in male fertility.

I want to thank the American Society of Mammalogists @Mammalogists and the Society of Integrative & Comparative Biology @SICB_ who have both graciously funded my research on how social dynamics drive variation in male fertility.