Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on May 7, 2007
Behavioral Ecology 2007 18(4):696-700; doi:10.1093/beheco/arm032
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Mate preference for multiple cues: interplay between male and nest size in the sand goby, Pomatoschistus minutus
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, PO Box 65, FI–00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
Address correspondence to T.K. Lehtonen, who is now at Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, D–78457 Konstanz, Germany. E-mail: topi.lehtonen{at}uni.konstanz.de. K. Lindström is now at the Environmental and Marine Biology, Åbo Akademi University, FI–20500 Turku, Finland.
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Abstract |
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Female mating preferences are often based on more than one cue. In empirical studies, however, different mate choice cues are typically treated separately ignoring their possible interactions. In the current work, we studied how male body size and size of the male's nest jointly affect mate preferences of female sand gobies, Pomatoschistus minutus. The females were given a binary choice between males that differed either in body size or size of their nest or both. We found that neither body size nor size of the nest alone affected male attractiveness, but together these 2 cues had a significant effect. Specifically, large males were more popular among females when they had a large nest than when they occupied a small nest. The results suggest that if interaction effects between multiple mate choice cues are not considered, there is a danger of ignoring or underestimating the importance of these cues in sexual selection by female choice.
Key words: mate choice, multiple cues, nest size, Pomatoschistus minutus, sexual selection.
Received 29 December 2006; revised 5 March 2007; accepted 20 March 2007.