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Fig. 4 | BMC Biology

Fig. 4

From: Inclusive fitness benefits mitigate costs of cuckoldry to socially paired males

Fig. 4

When should paired males tolerate related cuckolders and when should cuckolders target related paired males? a Tolerance of related cuckolders by paired males is adaptive when the cost of discriminate defense is not too high (small a); when on average many unrelated cuckolders target a spawning event (high μC); and when the relatedness coefficient between the paired male and the related cuckolder is sufficiently high (large r). For example, if the cuckolder is a half-brother, tolerance is adaptive in the region below the contour marked 0.25. b Cuckolders should target related paired males when the cost to the paired male of discriminate defense is not too high (small a); when on average many unrelated cuckolders target a spawning event (high μC); and when the relatedness coefficient between the cuckolder and the paired male is not too high (small r). For example, if the paired male is a half-brother, the cuckolder should target him rather than a non-relative in the region to the right of the contour marked 0.25. Note that this panel assumes that the paired male tolerates the related cuckolder whenever he is unable to drive off all potential cuckolders. c Parameter regions where paired males should tolerate relatives (below solid lines) and cuckolders should target relatives (to the right of dashed lines), combining the results of panels a and b. The relatedness between paired male and cuckolder is r = 0.5 (maroon lines); r = 0.25 (beige lines); and r = 0.1 (blue lines). All panels are shown with a probability f = 0.5 that the related cuckolder is present at a given spawning event, and a mean number μD = 1 of cuckolders that the paired male can drive off. Note that the number of successful cuckolders may be much smaller than the number of potential cuckolders

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