Female mate choice based on multiple male traits and adaptive offspring manipulation

本研究的目的是研究的收益和成本的基础上，每个男性的特征和适应性的后代操纵的女性依赖于他们的配偶，使用野生孔雀鱼孔雀鱼在冲绳，日本。得到以下结果.通过使用数字修改的视频回放的刺激男性图像，一个显着的女性偏好男性橙子斑点的颜色饱和度被证实。此外，观察表明，男性拥有高色彩饱和度的橙子斑点表现出更大的藻类觅食能力。亲子回归分析表明，雄性孔雀鱼对藻类的摄食能力是可遗传的。具有较高的藻类觅食能力的男性表现出更快的增长和更大的橙子斑点。这些结果表明，雌性个体根据雄性个体的橙子斑点颜色进行配偶选择，可以获得诸如产生具有较高藻类觅食能力的后代从而获得更高繁殖成功率等间接利益.据报道，雌性孔雀鱼对总长度较大的雄性表现出配偶偏好，但有些雄性会拉长尾巴（尾鳍）以获得较大的总长度。在水族馆实验中，一个女性身体接触的两个男性表现出相同的总长度，但具有不同的尾巴长度表明，女性更喜欢短尾男性的长尾男性。雌性个体与长尾雄性个体交配时会产生一些代价，如体型较小、繁殖后代的效率较低等。然而，当雌性与长尾雄性交配时，它们会减少后代的数量，并使后代的性别比偏向雄性，以减少与长尾雄性交配的成本。另一方面，长尾巴的男性影响他们的游泳性能，从而限制了他们的栖息地选择那些在野外水流速度慢。

This study aimed to examine the benefits and costs of female mate choice on the basis of each male trait and adaptive offspring manipulation by females depending on their mates using feral guppies Poecilia reticulata in Okinawa, Japan. The following results were obtained.1. By using digitally modified video playbacks of stimulus male images, a significant female preference for the color saturation of male orange spots was confirmed. In addition, observations indicated that males possessing the high color saturation of orange spots exhibited a greater algal-foraging ability. Parent-offspring regression analysis demonstrated that the algal-foraging ability of male guppies was a heritable component. Males possessing higher algal-foraging ability exhibited faster growth and larger orange spots. These results suggest that females can acquire indirect benefits such as producing offspring possessing the high algal-foraging ability and thus a greater reproductive success via their mate choice on the basis of male orange spot coloration.2. It has been reported that female guppies exhibited mate preference for males possessing large total lengths, however some males elongated their tails (caudal fins) to achieve large total lengths. Aquarium experiments in which a female physically contacted with two males exhibiting same total lengths but possessing different tail lengths indicated that the females preferred the short-tailed males over the long-tailed males. Females incurred costs of mating with long-tailed males, such as small body sizes and low reproductive efficiency of their daughters. However, when females mated with long-tailed males, they decreased the number of offspring and biased offspring sex ratio toward males in order to reduce the costs of mating with the long-tailed males. On the other hand, long tails of males affected their swimming performance and consequently limited their choice of habitats to those with slow water velocity in the wild.