Experimental Analysis of Alternative Male Strategies

侧斑蜥蜴（Uta stansburiana）雄性的三种颜色多态性与不同的行为策略相关。(1)橙色喉咙的雄性非常具有攻击性，与许多雌性一起捍卫大片领土；(2)蓝喉咙的雄性倾向于一夫一妻制，保护配偶，但捍卫小块领土；(3)黄色喉咙的雄性不捍卫领土，但如果受到其他雄性的挑战，它们会模仿雌性的行为。长期的野外研究表明，这三种雄性类型在种群中频率是循环的。橙色被黄色取代，黄色的雄性容易受到蓝色雄性的攻击，而蓝色雄性则容易受到超级强势的橙色喉咙雄性的攻击。据预测，当每一种形态出现的频率很低时，它具有适应度优势。因为喉色是可遗传的，所以在小的孤立亚种群中，初始形态频率会被操纵。当后代成熟后，DNA父权分析将用于确定每个雄性后代在三个实验频率操作中的繁殖成功率。在最后的实验中，血液中的睾酮浓度将被控制，以确定在橙色雄性中观察到的高睾酮水平是否也对它们战胜蓝色雄性和对黄色雄性策略的易感性负责。

ABSTRACT Experimental Analysis of Alternative Male Strategies PI: SINERVO, Barry IBN 96-31757 Three color polymorphism s of males are correlated with distinct behavioral strategies in the side-blotched lizard, Uta stansburiana: (1) orange-throated males are very aggressive and defend large territories with many females, (2) blue-throated males tend to be monogamous and guard their mates, but defend small territories, and (3) yellow- throated males do not defend territories, but are sneakers and mimic the behaviors of females if challenged by other males. Long-term field studies indicate that the three male types are cycling in frequency within the population. Orange is replaced by yellow, yellow males are, in turn, vulnerable to blue mate-guarding males, and blue males are, in turn, vulnerable to ultra-dominant orange-throated males. It is predicted that each morph has a fitness advantage when it occurs at a very low frequency. Because throat color is heritable, the initial morph frequency will be manipulated in small isolated subpopulations. When offspring mature, DNA paternity analysis will be used to determine the reproductive success of each male offspring in the three experimental frequency manipulations. In a final experiment, blood testosterone concentrations will be manipulated to determine if the high testosterone levels that have been observed in orange males is also responsible for both their success against blue males, and their susceptibility to the yellow male strategy.