Welcome to the American Ornithological Society 2018 Annual Conference. We are pleased to have you join us at the lovely Hilton El Conquistador Resort in Tucson, AZ.
Mating behavior between recently diverged species in secondary contact can either impede or promote reproductive isolation. Traditionally, researchers focus on the importance of female mate choice and male-male competition in maintaining species barriers. However, female-female competition is taxonomically widespread and yet little is known about its role in the speciation process. Here, we investigate how female competition compares to male competition as a proximate mechanism of hybridization. We examine a hybrid zone between sex-role reversed, Neotropical jacana species, Jacana spinosa (Northern Jacana) and J. jacana (Wattled Jacana), in which female-female competition is a major determinant of reproductive success. We find that females of the more aggressive and larger species, J. spinosa, disproportionately mother hybrid offspring, potentially by monopolizing breeding territories in sympatry with J. jacana. We also find asymmetric introgression of female body mass, a predictor of territorial status and reproductive success, relative to the genetic center and width of the hybrid zone. We conclude that sex-role reversed females appear to behave like their male counterparts in traditional hybrid zones by facilitating hybridization.
