Male mate choice in the Andrew’s toad Bufo andrewsi: a preference for larger females
Male mate choice in the Andrew’s toad Bufo andrewsi: a preference for larger females
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DOI：
10.1007/s10164-008-0135-7
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发表时间：
2009-09
影响因子：
0.9
通讯作者：
W. Liao;Xin Lu
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
W. Liao;Xin Lu
在两栖动物中，理论预测，当雌性的繁殖力与体型相关并且投入一次交配的时间和精力相对较多时，雄性就会根据雌性体型进行择偶。根据实验观察，我们测试了安德鲁蟾蜍（Bufo andrewsi）种群中是否存在雄性择偶行为，在该物种中，这两个假设都可能得到满足。当男性时 B.安德鲁斯被与一只怀孕的雌性和一只未怀孕的体型相似的雌性放在一起，雄性并没有区别对待它们。当向雄性提供两只大小差异明显的怀孕雌性时，雄性更喜欢较大的一只。在一项实验中，两只不同大小的怀孕雌性被放入两个独立的透明圆柱体中，以排除潜在的化学线索，雄性会花更多的时间靠近较大的怀孕雌性，并且比较小的怀孕雌性更频繁地跳向较大的怀孕雌性。这些发现表明，maleB.安德鲁斯能够识别雌性的体型大小，表现出择偶的能力，并且更喜欢与具有更大繁殖潜力的体型较大的雌性交配。
In amphibians, theory predicts that male mate choice with respect to female body size can be expected to occur when female fecundity is related to body size and when the time and energy invested into one mating are relatively large. Based on experimental observations, we tested whether male mate choice occurs in a population of the Andrew’s toad (Bufo andrewsi), a species in which both assumptions are likely to be met. When a maleB. andrewsiwas placed with a gravid female and a non-gravid similar-sized female, the male did not discriminate between them. When two gravid females with distinct size differences were provided to a male, the male preferred the larger one. In an experiment in which two different-sized gravid females were put in two separate transparent cylinders to exclude potential chemical cues, males spent more time in proximity to the larger gravid females and jumped more frequently towards the larger gravid females than the smaller ones. These findings suggest that maleB. andrewsirecognizes female body size, exhibits mate choice, and prefers to mate with larger females that provide greater reproductive potential.