Audience effect alters male but not female mating preferences |
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Authors: | Martin Plath Katja Kromuszczynski Ralph Tiedemann |
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Institution: | (1) Unit of Animal Ecology, Department of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Maulbeerallee 1, 14469 Potsdam, Germany;(2) Unit of Evolutionary Biology and Systematic Zoology, Department of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany;(3) Department of Zoology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA |
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Abstract: | Males often face strong mating competition by neighboring males in their social environment. A recent study by Plath et al.
(Anim Behav 75:21–29, 2008a) has demonstrated that the visual presence of a male competitor (i.e., an audience male) affects
the expression of male mating preferences in a poeciliid fish (Poecilia mexicana) with a weaker expression of mating preferences when an audience male observed the focal male. This may be a tactic to reduce
sperm competition, since surrounding males likely share intrinsic preferences for female traits or copy mate choice decisions.
Here, we examined the hypothesis that a same-sex audience would affect female mate preferences less than male mating preferences. Our hypothesis was based on the assumptions that (1) competition for
mates in a fashion that would be comparable in strength to sperm competition or overt male–male aggression is absent among
Poecilia females, and (2) P. mexicana females typically form female-biased shoals, such that almost any female mate choice in nature occurs in front of a female
audience. Poecilia females (P. mexicana, surface and cave form, and the closely related gynogenetic Poecilia formosa) were given a choice between a large and a small male, and the tests were repeated while a conspecific, a heterospecific,
or no audience female (control) was presented. Females spent more time in the neutral zone and, thus, less time near the males
during the second part of a trial when an audience was presented, but—consistent with predictions—females showed only slightly
weaker expression of mate preferences during the second part of the tests. This decline was not specific to the treatment
involving an audience and was significantly weaker than the effect seen in the male sex. |
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Keywords: | Communication networks Female choice Mate preferences Poecilia Sexual selection |
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