Sequential female assessment drives complex sexual selection on bower shape in a cichlid fish

Young, Kyle A.; Genner, Martin J.; Haesler, Marcel P.; Joyce, Domino A.

Abstract

In many animals, sexual selection on male traits results from female mate choice decisions made during a sequence of courtship behaviors. We use a bower-building cichlid fish, Nyassachromis cf. microcephalus, to show how applying standard selection analysis to data on sequential female assessment provides new insights into sexual selection by mate choice. We first show that the cumulative selection differentials confirm previous results suggesting female choice favors males holding large volcano-shaped sand bowers. The sequential assessment analysis reveals these cumulative differentials are the result of selection acting on different bower dimensions during the courtship sequence; females choose to follow males courting from tall bowers, but choose to engage in premating circling with males holding bowers with large diameter platforms. The approach we present extends standard selection analysis by partitioning the variances of increasingly accurate estimates of male reproductive fitness and is applicable to systems in which sequential female assessment drives sexual selection on male traits. © 2010 The Author(s). Journal compilation © 2010 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Citation

Young, K. A., Genner, M. J., Haesler, M. P., & Joyce, D. A. (2010). Sequential female assessment drives complex sexual selection on bower shape in a cichlid fish. Evolution, 64(8), 2246-2253. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2010.00984.x

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 28, 2010
• Online Publication Date: Feb 26, 2010
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Nov 13, 2014
• Journal: Evolution
• Print ISSN: 0014-3820
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 64
• Issue: 8
• Pages: 2246-2253
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2010.00984.x
• Keywords: Cichlids extended phenotype Lake Malawi leks mate choice selection analysis indirect mate choice male reproductive success male competition species recognition extended phenotypes opposing selection trade-off body-size lek traits,
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/462447
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2010.00984.x
• Contract Date: Nov 13, 2014