Skip to main content

Female Sneak Copulation

  • Living reference work entry
  • Latest version View entry history
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Sneaky mating; Undetected extra-pair copulation

Definition

Undetected copulation with the partner of another female or in defiance of the dominant female; often punished if detected.

Introduction

A female sits with her partner, or with a dominant male. She is able to reproduce and benefits due to her partner’s parental care and protection. Another female – of low rank, in a female-driven dominance hierarchy – has failed to find a partner and has yet to mate. In each case, the female can increase her reproductive fitness by mating with an additional male, with additional males, or by mating for the first time. But in order to do so, she must overcome various forms of resistance. In the first case, the partner of the female, or the dominant male, will not want her to “cheat” on him. Likewise, the partners of her additional mates will not want “their” males to cheat on them. Finally, in the case of the low-rank female, a dominant female will not want her to win over reproductive...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bateman, A. J. (1948). Intra-sexual selection in Drosophila. Heredity, 2, 349–368.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, C. (2013). The evolutionary psychology of women’s aggression. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B: Biological Sciences, 368, 20130078.

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Drea, C. M. (2005). Bateman revisited: The reproductive tactics of female primates. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 45, 915–923.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Forstmeier, W., Nakagawa, S., Griffith, S. C., & Kempenaers, B. (2014). Female extra-pair mating: Adaptation or genetic constraint. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 29(8), 456–464.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fox, C. W., & Rauter, C. M. (2003). Bet-hedging and the evolution of multiple mating. Evolutionary Ecology Research, 5, 273–286.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffith, S. C. (2007). The evolution of infidelity in socially monogamous passerines: Neglected components of direct and indirect selection. American Naturalist, 169, 274–281.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jennions, M. D., & Petrie, M. (2000). Why do females mate multiply? A review of the genetic benefits. Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 75(1), 21–64.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kempenaers, B., Verheyen, G. R., Van den Broeck, M., Burke, T., Van Broeckhoven, C., & Dhondt, A. A. (1992). Extra-pair paternity results from female preference for high-quality males in the blue tit. Nature, 357, 494–496.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • le Roux, A., Snyder-Mackler, N., Roberts, E. K., Beehner, J. C., & Bergman, T. J. (2013). Evidence for tactical concealment in a wild primate. Nature Communications, 4, 1462.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neff, B. D., & Svensson, E. I. (2013). Polyandry and alternative mating tactics. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B: Biological Sciences, 368, 20120045.

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Overduin-de Vries, A. M., Spruijt, B. M., de Vries, H., & Sterck, E. H. M. (2015). Tactical deception to hide sexual behaviour: Macaques use distance, not visibility. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 69(8), 1333–1342.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sidanius, J., Pratto, F., & Bobo, L. (1994). Social dominance orientation and the political psychology of gender: A case of invariance? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 998–1011.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stockley, P., & Campbell, A. (2013). Female competition and aggression: Interdisciplinary perspectives. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B: Biological Sciences, 368, 20130073.

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Trivers, R. L. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection. In B. Campbell (Ed.), Sexual selection and the descent of man (pp. 1871–1971). Chicago: Aldine-Atherton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westneat, D. F., Sherman, P. W., & Morton, M. L. (1990). The ecology and evolution of extra-pair copulations in birds. Current Ornithology, 7, 331–369.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to James M. Howie or Andrew Pomiankowski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Howie, J.M., Pomiankowski, A. (2017). Female Sneak Copulation. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_83-3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_83-3

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Female Sneak Copulation
    Published:
    28 January 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_83-3

  2. Female Sneak Copulation
    Published:
    25 November 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_83-2

  3. Original

    Female Sneak Copulation
    Published:
    20 September 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_83-1