According to the GiLM GEE model of Table A5 , this difference was highly significant for both the comparisons with males (overall effect: X 2 = 54.8, p = 5.7 × 10 −14 in the female–non-irradiated male comparison; X 2 = 62.5, p = 1.8 × 10 −13 for the female–irradiated male comparison).
In the case of mating with the non-irradiated males, on the first day, mating occurrence started at low levels (21.5 ± 1.5%) and then showed a positive trend until the end of the experiment (interaction non-irradiated*day 3: Wald = 11.26, p = 0.00079).
A higher rate (%) of mating was observed at the dose of 80 Gy and at 60 Gy in comparison to the non-irradiated control ( Table 1 ), but the values did not reach statistical significance (at 80 Gy: rate of 73.3 ± 3.1 vs. 60.1 ± 3.5 of the non-irradiated; at 60 Gy: 63.5 ± 3.5 vs. 47.5 ± 3.5 of the non-irradiated).
As in the case of the no-choice test, an increasing trend with an apparent sinusoidal component was observed during the experiment, and this effect was shared among the three individuals confined into the cages ( Figure A3 ).