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 3; referees: 3 approved]
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  - 2017
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/44376
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-443767
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  - Amendments from Version 2: We discuss in more detail whether sperm was actually transferred during the mating trials and why we find it reasonable to assume that average ‘sexual activity’ is a good proxy for sperm competition risk at the species level (even though we did not assess sperm competition directly). We further included a brief discussion as to the question of whether or not we can rule out avoidance of aggressive interactions as another factor explaining the evolution of deceptive mating behavior, as sexual activity correlates not only with deceptive mating behavior but also aggressiveness. We also propose future experimental approaches that may provide additional insights into those questions.
VL  - 2
IS  - Art. 75
SP  - 1
EP  - 25
PB  - F1000 Research Ltd
CY  - London
ER  -