Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on June 2, 2006
Behavioral Ecology 2006 17(5):691-699; doi:10.1093/beheco/ark020
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Fitness correlates of male coloration in a Lake Victoria cichlid fish
a Department of Animal Ecology, Institute of Biology, University of Leiden, PO Box 9516, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands, b Department of Biology, University of Alcalá, E-28871 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain, c Department of Aquatic Ecology and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 6, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland, and d Swiss Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (EAWAG), Ecology Research Centre, Seestrasse 79, CH-6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland
Address correspondence to M.E. Maan. E-mail: m.maan{at}biology.leidenuniv.nl.
Sexual selection by female choice has contributed to the rapid evolution of phenotypic diversity in the cichlid fish species flocks of East Africa. Yet, very little is known about the ecological mechanisms that drive the evolution of female mating preferences. We studied fitness correlates of male nuptial coloration in a member of a diverse Lake Victoria cichlid lineage, Pundamilia nyererei. In this species, male red coloration is subject to intraspecific sexual selection by female mate choice. Male nuptial coloration plays a critical role also in reproductive isolation between this species and the closely related sympatric species P. pundamilia. Here, we show that P. nyererei male coloration is carotenoid based, illustrating the potential for honest signaling of individual quality. In a wild population, we found that variation in male coloration was not associated with variation in a set of strongly intercorrelated indicators of male dominance: male size, territory size, and territory location. Instead, the 2 male characters that predominantly determine female choice, territory size and red coloration, may be independent predictors of male quality: males with bright red coloration and large territories had lower parasite infestation rates. As a result, female preferences tended to select against heavily parasitized males. Consistent with parasite-mediated sexual selection, males had higher and more variable parasite loads than females.
Key words: carotenoid display, cichlid fish, Lake Victoria, parasite-mediated sexual selection, Pundamilia nyererei, speciation.
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