TY  - JOUR
A1  - McCoy, Ellen
A1  - Syska, Norbert
A1  - Plath, Martin
A1  - Schlupp, Ingo
A1  - Riesch, Rüdiger
T1  - Mustached males in a tropical poeciliid fish - emerging female preference selects for a novel male trait
JF  - Behavioral ecology and sociobiology
N2  - One possible mechanism for the (co-)evolution of seemingly novel male traits and female preferences for them is that males exploit pre-existing female biases, and livebearing fishes (Poeciliidae) have been at the forefront of this research for almost two decades. Here, using 13 poeciliid species from four different genera, we tested whether mustache-like rostral filaments found in males of some Mexican molly (Poecilia sphenops) populations could have evolved due to exploitation of a pre-existing female bias. While Mexican mollies were the only species with a significant female association preference for mustached males, we also did not find any species exhibiting significant aversion for mustached males; rather, variance in female preference scores was large throughout. For example, more than 25% of females spent twice as much time with the mustached male compared to the non-mustached male in most species, but even 31% of Mexican molly females spent more time near the non-mustached male. Hence, a comparison of the strength of preference was inconclusive. We discuss the possibility that the female preference of P. sphenops for mustached males could be due to a female pre-existing bias (sensu lato), even if population means were not significant for species other than P. sphenops. This highlights the importance of distinguishing between population means and individual preferences when interpreting mate choice, and thus, adds depth to the concept of mating preferences as a motor for evolutionary change.
KW  - Female choice
KW  - Mate preferences
KW  - Pre-existing bias
KW  - Sexual selection
KW  - Character mapping
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1154-x
SN  - 0340-5443
VL  - 65
IS  - 7
SP  - 1437
EP  - 1445
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  -