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The role of sexual harassment in cave and surface dwelling populations of the Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana (Poeciliidae, Teleostei)

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Abstract

Sexual coercion is a common behaviour for males trying to compensate for being inferior in male competition and/or female choice. We measured the cost of male sexual harassment for females as reduced feeding time in three populations of the Atlantic molly (Poecilia mexicana). Of these populations, one originated from a typical river habitat, another from a lightless cave chamber and the third one from a small, milky creek outside the cave. We gave hungry females an opportunity to feed in the presence of either another female or a male. We found the following: (1) male sexual harassment represents a cost in the river dwelling population and both small and large males significantly reduce female feeding time; and (2) sexual harassment was not detected in the other two populations (cave and cave entrance). In the cave molly, small males are at a disadvantage in female choice, but predation by an aquatic heteropteran selects against large male body size.

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Acknowledgements

We thank B. Retzlaff (laboratory) and K. Heubel (field) for help with data collection. A. Taebel-Hellwig, T.H. Dirks, I.D. Schmidt and the Aquarium team provided animal care and technical support. K. Heubel, R. Wanker and A. Weber kindly read the manuscript. Financial support came from the University of Hamburg to M. Plath. We thank the Mexican government for issuing permit number 242-2190275/36 and 291002-613-1577 to collect fishes. The experiments reported in this paper comply with the current laws of the respective countries where they were conducted.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoologisches Institut und Zoologisches Museum, Universität Hamburg, Martin Luther King Platz 3, 20146, Hamburg, Germany

    Martin Plath & Jakob Parzefall

  2. Zoologisches Institut, Universität Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zürich, Switzerland

    Ingo Schlupp

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  1. Martin Plath
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  2. Jakob Parzefall
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  3. Ingo Schlupp
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Correspondence to Martin Plath.

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Communicated by M. Abrahams

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Plath, M., Parzefall, J. & Schlupp, I. The role of sexual harassment in cave and surface dwelling populations of the Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana (Poeciliidae, Teleostei). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 54, 303–309 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0625-0

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