TY  - JOUR
A1  - Bierbach, David
A1  - Makowicz, Amber M.
A1  - Schlupp, Ingo
A1  - Geupel, Holger
A1  - Streit, Bruno
A1  - Plath, Martin
T1  - Casanovas are liars : behavioral syndromes, sperm competition
risk, and the evolution of deceptive male mating behavior in
live-bearing fishes [version 2; referees: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]
T2  - F1000Research
N2  - Male reproductive biology can by characterized through competition over mates as well as mate choice. Multiple mating and male mate choice copying, especially in internally fertilizing species, set the stage for increased sperm competition, i.e., sperm of two or more males can compete for fertilization of the female’s ova. In the internally fertilizing fish Poecilia mexicana, males respond to the presence of rivals with reduced expression of mating preferences (audience effect), thereby lowering the risk of by-standing rivals copying their mate choice. Also, males interact initially more with a non-preferred female when observed by a rival, which has been interpreted in previous studies as a strategy to mislead rivals, again reducing sperm competition risk (SCR). Nevertheless, species might differ consistently in their expression of aggressive and reproductive behaviors, possibly due to varying levels of SCR. In the current study, we present a unique data set comprising ten poeciliid species (in two cases including multiple populations) and ask whether species can be characterized through consistent differences in the expression of aggression, sexual activity and changes in mate choice under increased SCR. We found consistent species-specific differences in aggressive behavior, sexual activity as well as in the level of misleading behavior, while decreased preference expression under increased SCR was a general feature of all but one species examined. Furthermore, mean sexual activity correlated positively with the occurrence of potentially misleading behavior. An alternative explanation for audience effects would be that males attempt to avoid aggressive encounters, which would predict stronger audience effects in more aggressive species. We demonstrate a positive correlation between mean aggressiveness and sexual activity (suggesting a hormonal link as a mechanistic explanation), but did not detect a correlation between aggressiveness and audience effects. Suites of correlated behavioral tendencies are termed behavioral syndromes, and our present study provides correlational evidence for the evolutionary significance of SCR in shaping a behavioral syndrome at the species level across poeciliid taxa.
Y1  - 2013
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/31654
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-316546
SN  - 2046-1402
N1  - Copyright: © 2013 Bierbach D et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Data associated with the article are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Zero "No rights reserved" data waiver (CC0 1.0 Public domain dedication).
N1  - Changes from Version 1: In the second version of our manuscript, we largely followed the reviewers’ suggestions and comments. Specifically, we now emphasize the comparative character of our study in more detail and furthermore re-ran all analyses using mixed model approaches which allowed us to depict the behavioral variation within a species as well as between species. Tables 2, and 3, and Figure 3 have been replaced with new versions. Though the new analysis helped to improve our manuscript, most results and conclusions remain unchanged.
VL  - 2
IS  - Art. 75
SP  - 1
EP  - 24
PB  - BioMed Central
CY  - London
ER  -