Male-male competition ensures honest signaling of male parental ability in the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) |
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Authors: | U Candolin |
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Institution: | (1) Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland, FI |
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Abstract: | The importance of socially imposed costs for the evolution and maintenance of honest sexual signals has received less attention
than other costs. Here I show that male-male competition can increase the honesty of sexual signaling in relation to male
parental ability in a species with flexible signaling. When four three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) males were allowed to court a female first separately and then in competition, red nuptial coloration under competition
reflected male parental ability more accurately than red coloration when separated. Parental ability was determined as the
ability of the male to raise a clutch of eggs to the hatching stage under interaction with other breeding and non-breeding
males. The increased honesty under competition was probably due to subordinate males of poor parental ability decreasing their
color expression under interaction to reduce the risk of fights with superior males. However, socially imposed costs of signaling
were probably not the main factors maintaining honest signaling, as red coloration reflected male parental ability also in
the absence of competition, although less accurately. Nevertheless, the small-scale differences that male-male competition
induced can significantly facilitate adaptive female choice and have large impacts on sexual selection.
Received: 7 July 2000 / Revised: 31 August 2000 / Accepted: 4 September 2000 |
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Keywords: | Sexual selection Reliable signaling Dominance Parental care Nuptial coloration |
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