The sexual conflict or war of the sexes is a new concept in evolutionary biology which stresses that the sexués living organisms have a divergence of interests in the evolution.

There exists a competition between the males, a competition between females and a conflict between males and females. It is the “war of the sexes”.

The sexual conflict takes its source in the divergence of interests between males and females, while the males can increase their number of descendants by multiplying the sexual partners, the females cannot increase their descent by the Polyandrie. At the Drosophilas for example, the spermatic Compétition between the males can lead, for example, with the production of a toxic sperm which deteriorates the quality of the sperm of a predecessor, but toxicté of this sperm can in its turn disturb the female at the point to reduce its survival. The body of the female is here the place of this war of the sexes.

This sexual conflict involves that the reproduction of a sex is increased with the detriment of the other. It results a process known as from them of antagonistic Co-evolution where the evolution of a sex disturbs the reproductive success of the other according to an evolutionary model of arms race or of shooting to the cord . The sexual conflict is a promising but recent concept of the evolutionary biology whose consequences are still badly known.

References

1. Goran Arnqvist, L. Rowe, “ Sexual conflict ”, Princeton and Oxford, Princeton University Near, 2005

2. Thierry Lodé, " the war of the sexes in the animals, a natural history of sexuality " Odile Jacob, Paris 2006.