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Indirect mate choice, direct mate choice and species recognition in a bower-building cichlid fish lek

Genner, M. J.; Young, K. A.; Haesler, M. P.; Joyce, D. A.

Authors

M. J. Genner

K. A. Young

M. P. Haesler



Abstract

Sexual selection arising through female mate choice typically favours males with larger, brighter and louder signals. A critical challenge in sexual selection research is to determine the degree to which this pattern results from direct mate choice, where females select individual males based on variation in signalling traits, or indirect mate choice, where male competition governs access to reproductively active females. We investigated female mate choice in a lekking Lake Malawi cichlid fish, Hemitilapia oxyrhynchus, in which males build and aggressively defend sand 'bowers'. Similar to previous studies, we found that male reproductive success was positively associated with bower height and centrality on the lek. However, this pattern resulted from males holding these territories encountering more females, and thus their greater success was due to indirect mate choice. Following initial male courtship, an increase in the relative mating success of some males was observed, but this relative increase was unrelated to bower size or position. Crucially, experimentally manipulating bowers to resemble those of a co-occurring species had no appreciable effect on direct choice by females or male spawning success. Together, these results suggest indirect mate choice is the dominant force determining male-mating success in this species, and that bowers are not signals used in direct mate choice by females. We propose that, in this species, bowers have a primary function in intraspecific male competition, with the most competitive males maintaining larger and more central bowers that are favoured by sexual selection due to higher female encounter rates.

Citation

Genner, M. J., Young, K. A., Haesler, M. P., & Joyce, D. A. (2008). Indirect mate choice, direct mate choice and species recognition in a bower-building cichlid fish lek. Journal of evolutionary biology, 21(5), 1387-1396. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2008.01558.x

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 6, 2008
Online Publication Date Jun 10, 2008
Publication Date 2008-09
Deposit Date Nov 13, 2014
Journal Journal Of Evolutionary Biology
Print ISSN 1010-061X
Electronic ISSN 1420-9101
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 21
Issue 5
Pages 1387-1396
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2008.01558.x
Keywords Extended phenotype; Lake Malawi; Male competition; Mate choice; Sexual selection
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/461785
Publisher URL https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2008.01558.x