Matthias Foellmer
Adjunct Assistant Professor

B.Sc. (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) Ph.D. (Concordia University, Montreal) Current Address: Department of Biology, Adelphi University 1 South Ave., Garden City, New York, 11530, USA

Research interests:
Evolutionary biology
Sexual dimorphism
Mating strategies

My research focuses on the evolutionary significance of extreme sexual size dimorphism (SSD). Body size is one of the most important quantitative traits of an organism; it is strongly correlated with many physiological, behavioural, and life-history traits. Natural selection (through the combined effects of sexual selection, fecundity selection and viability selection) often favours a different optimal body size in males and females of a given species, the reasons for which need to be analysed as an important step towards understanding biological diversity. My research aims at understanding how differences in reproductive roles between the sexes, ecological variables such as habitat features, and genetic and physiological factors contribute to SSD evolution, and how these might interact in nature. I use the orb-weaving spider Argiope aurantia as a model organism to address my research questions. This species exhibits several interesting features: sexual size dimorphism is pronounced, females are much larger than males; females frequently attack males during copulation (sexual cannibalism); males spontaneously die during copulation (male self-sacrifice). Work in my group involves quantifying selection processes in the field as well as in controlled laboratory environments.

Selected publications
Blanckenhorn, W.U, Dixon, A. F. G., Fairbairn, D. J., Foellmer, M. W., Gibert, P., van der Linde, K., Meier, R., Nylin, S., Pitnick, S., Schoff, C., Signorelli, M., Teder, T. and Wiklund, C. 2007. Proximate causes of Rensch’s rule: Does sexual size dimorphism in arthropods result from sex differences in development time? American Naturalist 169(2): 245-257.

Foellmer, M. W. and D. J. Fairbairn 2005. Competing dwarf males: sexual selection in an orb-weaving spider. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 18: 629-641.

Foellmer, M. W. and D. J. Fairbairn 2005. Selection on male size, leg length and condition during mate search in a sexually highly dimorphic orb-weaving spider. Oecologia 142: 653-662.

Foellmer, M. W. and D. J. Fairbairn 2004. Males under attack: sexual cannibalism and its consequences for male morphology and behaviour in an orb-weaving spider. Evolutionary Ecology Research 6: 163-181.

Foellmer, M. W. and D. J. Fairbairn 2003. Spontaneous male death during copulation in an orb-weaving spider. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, B 270: S183-S185.