Abstract
Mate choice copying was mostly described as a strategy employed by females to assess the quality of potential mates, but also males can copy other males’ mate choice. An open question in this context is whether and how copying males evaluate sperm competition risk, as mating with a female that has already copulated with another male obviously sets the stage for intense sperm competition (i.e., in species with internal fertilization). Using the livebearing Atlantic molly (Poecilia mexicana) as a model, we asked (a) whether males of that species indeed copy other males’ choices, and if they do so, (b) whether copying males strategically adjust their behavior to sperm competition risk. We used an approach where focal males could first choose to associate with a large or a small stimulus female. Mate choice tests were then repeated after an “observation phase” during which either no model male was present (treatment 1, control) or the previously non-preferred female could be seen associating (treatment 2) or physically interacting (treatment 3) with a model male. We found that, after the observation phase, males spent considerably more time with the previously non-preferred female in treatment (2), i.e., they copied the model male’s choice. This effect was much weaker during treatment (3) where sexual interactions between the model male and the formerly non-preferred female were allowed. Males, therefore, seem to adjust their copying behavior strategically to the perceived risk of sperm competition.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andersson M (1994) Sexual selection. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Applebaum SL, Cruz A (2000) The role of mate-choice copying and disruption effects in mate preference determination of Limia perugiae (Cyprinodontiformes, Poeciliidae). Ethology 106:933–944
Aquiloni L, Buřič M, Gherardi F (2008) Crayfish females eavesdrop on fighting males before choosing the dominant mate. Curr Biol 18:462–463
Auld HL, Punzalan D, Godin J-GJ, Rundle HD (2009) Do female fruit flies (Drosophila serrata) copy the mate choice of others? Behav Processes 82:78–80
Basolo AL (1990) Female preference predates the evolution of the sword in swordtail fish. Science 250:808–810
Bateman AJ (1948) Intra-sexual selection in Drosophila. Heredity 2:349–368
Becher SA, Magurran AE (2004) Multiple mating and reproductive skew in Trinidadian guppies. Proc R Soc Lond B 271:1009–1014
Bonduriansky R (2001) The evolution of male mate choice in insects: a synthesis of ideas and evidence. Biol Rev 76:305–339
Bonnie KE, Earley RL (2007) Expanding the scope for social information use. Anim Behav 74:171–181
Bro-Jørgensen J (2007) Reversed sexual conflict in a promiscuous antelope. Curr Biol 17:2157–2161
Brooks R (1998) The importance of mate copying and cultural inheritance of mating preferences. Trends Ecol Evol 13:45–46
Brooks R (1999) Mate choice copying in guppies: females avoid the place where they saw courtship. Behaviour 136:411–421
Clutton-Brock T (2007) Sexual selection in males and females. Science 318:1882–1885
Clutton-Brock T, McComb K (1993) Experimental tests of copying and mate choice in fallow deer (Dama dama). Behav Ecol 4:191–193
Constanz GD (1984) Sperm competition in poeciliid fishes. In: Smith RL (ed) Sperm competition and the evolution of animal mating systems. Academic, Orlando, pp 465–485
Dabelsteen T (2005) Public, private or anonymous? Facilitating and countering eavesdropping. In: McGregor PK (ed) Animal communication networks. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 38–62
Darwin C (1871) The descent of man and selection in relation to sex. Modern Library, New York
Dosen LD, Montgomerie R (2004) Mate preferences by male guppies (Poecilia reticulata) in relation to the risk of sperm competition. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 55:266–271
Druen M, Dugatkin AL (2011) Communication networks. In: Evans J, Pilastro A, Schlupp I (eds) Ecology and evolution of livebearing fishes(Poeciliidae). Chicago University Press, Chicago
Dugatkin LA (1992) Sexual selection and imitation: females copy the mate choice of others. Am Nat 139:1384–1389
Dugatkin LA (1996) Copying and mate choice. In: Heyes CM, Galef BG Jr (eds) Social learning in animals: the roots of culture. Academic, New York, pp 85–105
Dugatkin LA (1998) Genes, copying, and female mate choice; shifting thresholds. Behav Ecol 9:323–327
Dugatkin LA, Godin J-GJ (1992) Reversal of female mate choice by copying in the guppy. Proc R Soc Lond Biol Sci 249:179–184
Dugatkin LA, Godin J-GJ (1993) Female mate copying in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata)—age dependent effects. Behav Ecol 4:289–292
Earley RL, Dugatkin LA (2005) Fighting, mating and networking: pillars of poeciliid sociality. In: McGregor PK (ed) Animal communication networks. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 84–113
Endler JA, Houde AE (1995) Geographic variation in female preferences for male traits in Poecilia reticulata. Evolution 49:456–468
Evans JP, Magurran AE (2001) Patterns of sperm precedence and predictors of paternity in the Trinidadian guppy. Proc R Soc Lond Biol Sci 268:719–724
Farr JA, Travis JT (1986) Fertility advertisement by female sailfin mollies, Poecilia latipinna (Pisces: Poeciliidae). Copeia 1986:467–472
Freed-Brown G, White DJ (2009) Acoustic mate copying: female cowbirds attend to other females’ vocalizations to modify their song preferences. Proc R Soc Lond Biol Sci 276:3319–3325
Frommen JG, Rahn AK, Schroth SH, Waltschyk N, Bakker TCM (2008) Mate-choice copying when both sexes face high costs of reproduction. Evol Ecol 23(3):435–446
Galef BG, White DJ (1998) Mate-choice copying in the Japanese quail, Coturnix coturnix japonica. Anim Behav 55:545–552
Galef BG, Lim TCW, Gilbert GS (2008) Evidence of mate choice copying in Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus. Anim Behav 75:1117–1123
Gibson RM, Höglund J (1992) Copying and sexual selection. Trends Ecol Evol 7:229–232
Godin JGJ, Hair KPE (2009) Mate-choice copying in free-ranging Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Behaviour 146:1443–1461
Grant JWA, Green LD (1996) Mate copying versus preference for actively courting males by female Japanese medaka (Oryzia latipes). Behav Ecol 7:165–167
Hamilton WD, Zuk M (1982) Heritable true fitness and bright birds. A role for parasites? Science 218:384–387
Heubel KU, Plath M (2008) Influence of male harassment and female competition on female feeding behaviour in a sexual/asexual mating complex of mollies (Poecilia mexicana, P. formosa). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62:1689–1699
Heubel KU, Hornhardt K, Ollmann T, Parzefall J, Ryan MJ, Schlupp I (2008) Geographic variation in female mate-copying in the species complex of a unisexual fish, Poecilia formosa. Behaviour 145:1041–1064
Höglund J, Alatalo RV, Lundberg A (1990) Copying the mate choice of others—observations on female black grouse. Behaviour 114:221–231
Jennions MD, Petrie M (1997) Variation in mate choice and mating preferences: a review of causes and consequences. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 72:283–327
Johnston RE (2005) Eavesdropping and scent over-marking. In: McGregor PK (ed) Animal communication networks. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 344–371
Kokko H, Jennions MD (2008) Sexual conflict: the battle of the sexes reversed. Curr Biol 18:121–123
Kokko H, Johnstone RA (2002) Why is mutual mate choice not the norm? Operational sex ratios, sex roles and the evolution of sexually dimorphic and monomorphic signalling. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 357:319–330
Lafleur DL, Lozano GA, Sclafini M (1997) Female mate choice copying in guppies, Poecilia reticulata: a re-evaluation. Anim Behav 54:579–586
Liley NR (1966) Ethological isolating mechanisms in four sympatric species of Poeciliid fishes. Behav Supp 13:1–197
Magurran AE (2005) Evolutionary ecology: the Trinidadian guppy. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Matos R, Schlupp I (2005) Performing in front of an audience: signallers and the social environment. In: McGregor PK (ed) Animal communication networks. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 63–83
McGregor PK, Peake T (2000) Communication networks: social environments for receiving and signaling behaviour. Acta Ethol 2:71–81
Mery F, Varela SAM, Danchin E, Blanchet S, Parejo D, Coolen I, Wagner RH (2009) Public versus personal information for mate copying in an invertebrate. Curr Biol 19:730–734
Milinski M, Bakker TCM (1992) Costs influence sequential mate choice in sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus. Proc R Soc Lond Biol Sci 250:229–233
Møller AP, Alatalo RV (1999) Good-genes effects in sexual selection. Proc R Soc Lond B 266:85–91
Parker GA (1970) Sperm competition and its evolutionary consequences in insects. Biol Rev 45:525–567
Parzefall J (1969) Zur vergleichenden Ethologie verschiedener Mollienesia-Arten einschließlich einer Höhlenform von Mollienesia sphenops. Behaviour 33:1–37
Peake TM (2005) Eavesdropping in communication networks. In: McGregor PK (ed) Animal communication networks. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 13–37
Petrie M (1994) Improved groth and survival of offspring of peacocks with more elaborate trains. Nature 371:598–599
Pilastro A, Simonato M, Bisazza A, Evans JP (2004) Cryptic female preferences for colorful males in guppies. Evolution 58:665–669
Plath M, Schlupp I (2008) Misleading mollies—the effect of an audience on the expression of mating preferences. Comm Integr Biol 1:199–203
Plath M, Tobler M (2010) Subterranean fishes of Mexico (Poecilia mexicana, Poeciliidae). In: Trajano E, Bichuette ME, Kapoor BG (eds) Biology of subterranean fishes. Science, Enfield, pp 281–330
Plath M, Parzefall J, Schlupp I (2003) The role of sexual harassment in cave—and surface—dwelling populations of the Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana (Poeciliidae, Teleostei). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 54:303–309
Plath M, Parzefall J, Körner KE, Schlupp I (2004) Sexual selection in darkness? Female mating preferences in surface- and cave dwelling Atlantic mollies, Poecilia mexicana (Poeciliidae, Teleostei). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 55:596–601
Plath M, Seggel U, Burmeister H, Heubel KU, Schlupp I (2006) Choosy males from the underground: male mate choice in surface- and cave dwelling Atlantic mollies, Poecilia mexicana (Poeciliidae, Teleostei). Naturwissenschaften 93:103–109
Plath M, Makowicz AM, Schlupp I, Tobler M (2007) Sexual harassment in live-bearing fishes: comparing courting and non-courting species. Behav Ecol 18:680–688
Plath M, Blum D, Schlupp I, Tiedemann R (2008a) Audience effect alters mating preferences in Atlantic molly (Poecilia mexicana) males. Anim Behav 75:21–29
Plath M, Richter S, Tiedemann R, Schlupp I (2008b) Male fish deceive competitors about mating preferences. Curr Biol 18:1138–1141
Plath M, Kromuszczynski K, Tiedemann R (2009) Audience effect alters male but not female mating preferences. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 63:381–390
Plath M, Richter S, Tiedemann R, Schlupp I (2010) Misleading mollies: surface- butt not cave dwelling Poecilia mexicana males deceive competitors about mating preferences. Acta Ethol 13:49–56
Pruett-Jones S (1992) Independent versus non-independent mate choice: do females copy each other? Am Nat 140:1000–1009
Rendell L, Boyd R, Cownden D, Enquist M, Eriksson K, Feldman MW, Fogarty L, Ghirlanda S, Lillicrap T, Laland KN (2010) Why copy others? Insights from the social learning strategies tournament. Science 328:208–213
Rosenthal HL (1952) Observations of reproduction of the poeciliid Lebistes reticulatus (Peters). Biol Bull 102:30–38
Sæthers SA, Fiske P, Kalas JA (2001) Male mate choice, sexual conflict and strategic allocation of copulations in a lekking bird. Proc R Soc Lond Biol Sci 268:2097–2102
Schlupp I, Plath M (2005) Male mate choice and sperm allocation in a sexual/asexual mating complex (Poecilia mexicana, P. formosa, Poeciliidae, Teleostei). Biol Lett 1:169–171
Schlupp I, Ryan MJ (1997) Male sailfin mollies (Poecilia latipinna) copy the mate choice of other males. Behav Ecol 8:104–107
Schlupp I, Marler C, Ryan MJ (1994) Benefit to male sailfin mollies of mating with heterospecific females. Science 263:373–374
Schlupp I, Riesch R, Tobler M, Plath M, Parzefall J, Schartl M (2010) A novel sexually selected trait in poeciliid fishes: female preference for mustache-like, rostral filaments in male Poecilia sphenops. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 64:1849–1855
Schmidt J (1920) Racial investigations IV. The genetic behavior of a secondary sexual character. C R Trav Lab Carlsberg Ser Physiol 14:1–8
Sheldon BC, Meril ÄJ, Qvarnström A, Gustafsson L, Ellegren H (1997) Paternal genetic contribution to offspring condition predicted by size of male secondary sexual character. Proc R Soc Lond B 264:297–302
Siefferman L, Hill GE (2005) Blue structural coloration predicts incubation provisioning in eastern bluebirds. J Avian Biol 36:488–493
Swaddle JP, Cathey MG, Correll M, Hodkinson BP (2005) Socially transmitted mate preferences in a monogamous bird: a non-genetic mechanism of sexual selection. Proc R Soc Lond Biol Sci 272:1053–1058
Uller T, Johansson L (2003) Human mate choice and the wedding ring effect: are married men more attractive? Hum Nat 14:267–276
Valone TJ (2007) From eavesdropping on performance to copying the behavior of others: a review of public information use. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62:1–14
Valone TJ, Templeton JJ (2002) Public information for the assessment of quality: a widespread social phenomenon. Phil Trans R Soc Lond Biol Sci 357:1549–1557
Waynforth D (2007) Mate choice copying in humans. Hum Nat 18:264–271
Wedell N, Gage MJG, Parker GA (2002) Sperm competition, male prudence and sperm-limited females. Trends Ecol Evol 17:313–320
Westneat DF, Walters A, McCarthy TM, Hatch MI, Hein W (2000) Alternative mechanisms of nonindependent mate choice. Anim Behav 59:467–476
White DJ, Galef BG (1999) Mate-choice copying and conspecific cueing in Japanese quail, Coturnix coturnix japonica. Anim Behav 57:465–473
White DJ, Galef BG (2000) Culture in quail: social influences on mate choice of female Coturnix japonica. Anim Behav 59:975–979
Widemo MS (2006) Male but not female pipefish copy mate choice. Behav Ecol 17:255–259
Witte K (2006) Learning and mate choice. In: Brown C, Laland KN, Krause J (eds) Fish cognition and behavior. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 70–95
Witte K, Noltemeier B (2002) The role of information in mate-choice copying in female sailfin mollies (Poecilia latipinna). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 52:194–202
Witte K, Ryan MJ (1998) Male body length influences mate choice copying in the sailfin molly Poecilia latipinna. Behav Ecol 9:534–539
Witte K, Ryan MJ (2002) Mate-choice copying in the sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna) in the wild. Anim Behav 63:943–949
Witte K, Ueding K (2003) Sailfin molly females copy the rejection of a male. Behav Ecol 14:389–395
Wong BBM, Jennions MD (2003) Costs influence male mate choice in a freshwater fish. Proc R Soc Lond Biol Sci 270:36–38
Wong BBM, McCarthy M (2009) Prudent male mate choice under perceived sperm competition risk in the eastern mosquito fish. Behav Ecol 20:278–282
Wong BBM, Jennions MD, Keogh JS (2004) Sequential male mate choice in a fish, the Pacific blue-eye Pseudomugil signifer. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 56:253–256
Yorzinski JL, Platt ML (2010) Same-sex gaze attraction influences mate-choice copying in humans. PLoS ONE 5(2):e9115
Ziege M, Mahlow K, Hennige-Schulze C, Kronmarck C, Tiedemann R, Streit B, Plath M (2009) Audience effects in the Atlantic molly (Poecilia mexicana)—prudent male mate choice in response to perceived sperm competition risk? Front Zool 6:17
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank C. Manteuffel and H. Geupel for help with animal care and C. Bleidorn for valuable discussion. M. Ziege kindly provided the drawing of a male and a female P. mexicana for Fig. 1. Financial support came from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (PL 470/3-1). The experiments reported here comply with the current laws of Germany.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by T. Czeschlik
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bierbach, D., Kronmarck, C., Hennige-Schulz, C. et al. Sperm competition risk affects male mate choice copying. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 65, 1699–1707 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1177-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1177-3