Mating innovation a warming benefit

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe To survive, species must not just live in their environments, but must also successfully mate and produce young. Nevertheless, traits that

facilitate mating are often overlooked in determining species’ current and future ecological limits. This is of particular concern since reproductive efforts often have high energetic costs,

and as such, can easily become constrictive under changing environmental conditions. Michael Moore from the University of Colorado Denver, United States, and colleagues from the United

States, investigated the role of pruinescence — a light-reflecting and hydrophobic coating found on male dragonflies that is associated with courting — in defining dragonfly niches. They

experimentally demonstrated that males with pruinescence heated less and lost less water during warming than those without, and showed phylogenetic evidence that pruinescence permits

thermohydrically stressful courtship, mating in warmer microhabitats and occupation of warmer ranges. Local moisture levels also underlie intraspecific variation in pruinescence. Finally,

species with pruinescence have experienced lower local extinction rates due to climate change since the 1980s. Overall, this suggests that mating-related pruinescence can shape species’

limits in the context of contemporary climate change. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution Access Nature and

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AFFILIATIONS * Nature Climate Change https://www.nature.com/nclimate/ Tegan Armarego-Marriott Authors * Tegan Armarego-Marriott View author publications You can also search for this author

inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Tegan Armarego-Marriott. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE

Armarego-Marriott, T. Mating innovation a warming benefit. _Nat. Clim. Chang._ 14, 309 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-01986-4 Download citation * Published: 10 April 2024 * Issue

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