Females prefer males with superior fighting abilities but avoid sexually harassing winners when eavesdropping on male fights
Females prefer males with superior fighting abilities but avoid sexually harassing winners when eavesdropping on male fights
复制标题
DOI：
10.1007/s00265-013-1487-8
复制
发表时间：
2013-04-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Plath, Martin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bierbach, David;Sassmannshausen, Vanessa;Plath, Martin
由雄性竞争（性内选择）和雌性选择（间性选择）施加的选择可以是一致的或不一致的。具体而言，女性可能会或可能不会喜欢与占主导地位的男性交配，并与占主导地位（可能更骚扰）的男性互动的直接成本已被建议解释避免占主导地位的男性。在这里，我们认为性内和性间选择通常可能朝着同一个方向起作用，但当社会信息变得可用时，可能会暂时发生冲突。使用视频播放技术，我们提出了女性的墨西哥livebearing鱼Poecilia mexicana与两个大小匹配的男性和建立协会的喜好。然后，一半的雌性可以观察到同样的两个雄性战斗并建立统治地位，而对照组的雌性则看到两个雄性并排，但身体分开，随后重新评估了雌性的偏好。在随后的测试中，对照组的女性表现出对未来赢家的明显偏好，证实了对男性特征的先天或后天偏好，这些特征表明身体优越，即使排除了身体大小作为选择标准。然而，当允许偷听男性打架，女性没有表现出偏好观察到的赢家，甚至减少了与他们在一起的时间相对于控制治疗，其中没有战斗显示。随后的一项实验发现，比赛获胜者表现出更高的性行为水平，因此我们认为，在观察到一场战斗后，女性对占主导地位的男性的内在偏好的暂时抵消确实是由女性期望更多骚扰比赛获胜者的直接成本驱动的。
Selection imposed by male competition (intrasexual selection) and female choice (intersexual selection) can be con- or discordant. Specifically, females may or may not prefer mating with dominant males, and direct costs of interacting with dominant (and possibly more harassing) males have been suggested to explain avoidance of dominant males. Here, we exemplify that inter- and intrasexual selection may normally act in the same direction, but can be temporarily conflicting when social information becomes available. Using video playback techniques, we presented females of the Mexican livebearing fish Poecilia mexicana with two size-matched males and established association preferences. Half of the females could then observe the same two males fight and establish dominance, while control females saw both males side by side, but physically separated, and female preferences were subsequently re-evaluated. Females in the control group showed a significant preference for future winners in the subsequent testing, confirming an innate or acquired preference for male traits that are indicative of physical superiority, even when body size as a choice criterion is excluded. When allowed to eavesdrop on male fights, however, females did not show a preference for observed winners and even decreased time spent with them relative to the control treatment in which no fight was shown. A subsequent experiment found contest winners to show elevated levels of sexual behavior, so we argue that the temporary offset of the intrinsic female preference for dominant males after having observed a fight is indeed driven by direct costs females expect from more harassing contest winners.