The strength of a female mate preference increases with predation risk
The strength of a female mate preference increases with predation risk
复制标题
DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2008.1070
复制
发表时间：
2009-02-22
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Choe, Jae C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kim, Tae Won;Christy, John H.;Choe, Jae C.
当女性寻找配偶和他们的感知捕食风险增加，他们往往表达偏好的男性使用明显的求偶信号，放松对这些信号的生产性选择。在这里，我们报告一个明显的例外，这种一般模式。求爱的雄性招潮蟹Uca beebei有时会在它们交配的洞穴开口处建造泥柱。雌性在选择配偶之前会拜访几个雄性，它们会在洞穴中停留和繁殖，而且它们更喜欢拜访有柱子的雄性。先前的研究表明，这种偏好是基于视觉定向行为，这可能会降低雌性在寻找配偶时被捕食的风险。我们测试了这个想法，以确定是否女性的偏好男性与支柱增加感知捕食风险。我们把鸟类捕食者吸引到螃蟹求爱的地方，并测量了性接受能力强的雌性拜访有泥柱和没有泥柱的求爱雄性的比率。在高风险下，女性继续寻找配偶，他们表现出更强的相对偏好与支柱的男性。因此，当捕食风险很高时，雌性可能会继续表达自然选择下的偏好，因为它们可以帮助雌性避免捕食，从而加强利用偏好信号的性选择。
When females search for mates and their perceived risk of predation increases, they less often express preferences for males that use conspicuous courtship signals, relaxing sexual selection on production of these signals. Here, we report an apparent exception to this general pattern. Courting male fiddler crabs Uca beebei sometimes build pillars of mud at the openings to their burrows in which crabs mate. Females visit several males before they choose a mate by staying and breeding in their burrows, and they preferentially visit males with pillars. Previous studies suggested that this preference is based on a visual orientation behaviour that may reduce females' risk of predation while searching for a mate. We tested this idea by determining whether the female preference for males with pillars increases with perceived predation risk. We attracted avian predators to where crabs were courting and measured the rates that sexually receptive females visited courting males with and without mud pillars. Under elevated risk, females continued to search for mates and they showed a stronger relative preference for males with pillars. Thus, when predation risk is high, females may continue to express preferences that are under natural selection because they help females avoid predation, strengthening sexual selection for use of the preferred signal.