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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.12.008 Byline: Mari Saarikettu, Jaana O. Liimatainen, Anneli Hoikkala Abstract: There is increasing evidence that mate recognition systems vary within species. We studied the courtship rituals of five Drosophila virilis strains to investigate this intraspecific variation. Males that actively and persistently courted the female without paying much attention to the female's behaviour were the most successful at copulating. Intraspecific variation in mating rituals was high, but not as high as at the species level and it was not high enough to cause sexual isolation between the strains. The differences in courtship interactions of the strains reflected their geographical origin. Males from one of the strains did not produce audible song during their courtship, but still mated with some females of all strains. The courtships of the 'mute' males proceeded in the same way as those of the normal males, and the male's wing vibration (even though silent and produced at a late stage) was still an important part of the courtship. Author Affiliation: (*) Department of Biology, University of Oulu, Finland (a ) Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland Article History: Received 30 July 2004; Revised 3 September 2004; Accepted 3 December 2004 Article Note: (miscellaneous) MS. number: 8232

The intraspecific (within species) variation in the mate recognition systems and their mating behavior was studied. It was seen that the courtships of the 'mute' males proceeded in the same way as those of normal males and the male's wing vibration was still an important part of the courtship.