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Sexual selection in darkness? Female mating preferences in surface- and cave-dwelling Atlantic mollies, Poecilia mexicana (Poeciliidae, Teleostei)

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Abstract

In many species, females prefer large males as mating partners. Male size can easily be determined visually. We examined how such mate choice evolves when individuals are deprived of sensory information previously used to determine male quality. Using a cave-dwelling population of Atlantic mollies, Poecilia mexicana, as a model, we asked whether the female mating preference for large male body size still occurs in this cave fish, or whether it is lacking due to the absence of visual communication in the cave environment. In simultaneous choice tests we compared the time females spent with a large or a small male. In the river-dwelling and cave-dwelling fish, as well as the population originating from the cave entrance, we found a significant preference for large males in light. Hence, the ancestral mating preference of surface-dwelling mollies has been maintained during the evolution of the cave form. However, only the cave population exhibited a mating preference in darkness. Determination of male body size appears to have been taken over by a non-visual sensory system, probably the lateral line.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the DFG for financial support (Pa 148/10-4) and the Mexican Government for the collecting and research permits (242-219, 276/36, 210696-213-03). I.S. was supported by a Heisenberg Fellowship of the DFG. A. Taebel-Hellwig, T.H. Dirks, I.D. Schmidt and the aquarium team of the Biozentrum Grindel (Hamburg) provided technical support and help with fish care. M.J. Ryan and K.U. Heubel kindly read an earlier version of this manuscript.

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  1. Ingo Schlupp

    Present address: Biozentrum Grindel, Martin-Luther-King Platz 3, 20146, Hamburg, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Hamburg, Biozentrum Grindel, Martin-Luther-King Platz 3, 20146, Hamburg, Germany

    Martin Plath, Jakob Parzefall & Kay E. Körner

  2. Zoologisches Institut der 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. Kay E. Körner
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  4. Ingo Schlupp
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Correspondence to Martin Plath.

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Communicated by K. Lindström

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Plath, M., Parzefall, J., Körner, K.E. et al. Sexual selection in darkness? Female mating preferences in surface- and cave-dwelling Atlantic mollies, Poecilia mexicana (Poeciliidae, Teleostei). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 55, 596–601 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0750-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0750-9

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