Researchers at Binghamton University and the University of Arizona have been recognized for their work regarding an insect species and its relationship with aggression.

The main researchers include Omar Tonsi Eldakar, 2008 Ph.D. graduate of Binghamton University and current postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arizona; Michael J. Dlugos, a 2009 BU alumnus and Ph.D. adviser; and David Sloan Wilson, a BU professor in the department of biological sciences.

John W. Pepper of the University of Arizona was also involved, as well as two BU undergraduate students, junior Allison Whelan and Grace Huang.

The research was compiled into a paper titled “Population Structure Mediates Sexual Conflict in Water Striders,” which took a few weeks to write, according to Eldakar.

Originally, it was called “Nice Guys Don’t Always Finish Last” because Eldakar, the lead author, believed that it is the take-home message of the study.

According to a report by Inside BU, Eldakar and his colleagues learned that when given the choice, the female water striders surrounded themselves with the “gentlemen.”

The experiment involved collecting water striders during their breeding season and marking each of them with a combination of colored dots by using toothpicks dipped in model toy paint.

After that, the researchers observed the insects and placed each male into a category based on their level of sexual aggressiveness toward females, as well as their success at acquiring mates. Each water strider was observed for at least an hour.

According to Eldakar, there were two conditions that the male water striders were placed in.

The first condition, or the “isolated condition,” involved placing six male and six female water striders in isolated sub-pools, consisting of a mixture of high to low aggression males, within a large pool.

The second condition, or the “dispersal condition,” involved placing the striders in the boundary between the sub-pools opening and allowing the individuals to move freely.

According to Eldakar, compiling the results was simple.

“We compared how aggression predicted mating success in both conditions,” he said.

The results showed that the water striders in the isolated condition had selection that favored high-aggression males. However, when they were allowed to freely assort in the second condition, females moved towards less aggressive males.

Eldakar suspects that these results would generally apply to other species.

“Natural selection simultaneously acts on individuals and on groups of individuals and what evolves is the net result of these selection forces,” he said. “Just because a trait is locally adaptive does not necessarily mean that is what evolves.”

However, he does not think the results apply to humans because they have a different mating system and population structure.

According to Inside BU, previous studies done by Eldakar and his colleagues have demonstrated that “groups in which a more gentlemanly approach to mating prevails do better on the whole, even though jerks generally outperform the nice guys when they have to compete one-on-one.”

Eldakar believes that groups of cooperative individuals are more successful than groups of selfish individuals in nature, which goes against the theories of Charles Darwin.

“The naive view of Darwinian evolution is that it always favors the most savage, brutal and selfish behaviors. It doesn’t — and this is one example of that,” he said.

The results of the study were published in the Nov. 6 edition of Science, a journal of original scientific research, global news and commentary.