Sexual conflict, directional sexual selection and phenotypic plasticity jointly drive the evolution of extreme phenotypic variation
Claudia Pruvôt, Arnaud Badiane, Ingrid Dourlens, Mariama Drame, Juliette Mendes, Mirjam Urb, Romain Vedie, Séverine Viala, Cristina P Vieira, Patricia Gibert, Abderrahman Khila
The paper shows that sexual conflict and directional sexual selection, combined with phenotypic plasticity, maintain high phenotypic variation in male water striders.
bioRxiv · Aug 22, 2026 · PreprintEvolutionary Biology