Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on April 21, 2007
Behavioral Ecology 2007 18(4):680-688; doi:10.1093/beheco/arm030
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Sexual harassment in live-bearing fishes (Poeciliidae): comparing courting and noncourting species
a Department of Zoology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA b Unit of Evolutionary Biology and Systematic Zoology, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany c Universität Zürich, Zoologisches Institut, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland
Address correspondence to M. Plath. E-mail: mplath{at}rz.uni-potsdam.de.
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Abstract |
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Sexual harassment by males has been reported from several live-bearing fishes (Poeciliidae) and has been shown to inflict costs on females. For example, poeciliid females have reduced feeding opportunities when accompanied by a male because females dedicate attention to avoiding male copulation attempts. Poeciliid species differ considerably in male mating behavior, such as the presence or absence of courtship. Courting males display in front of the females, but males attempting to sneak-copulate approach females from behind, that is, in the blind portion of their visual field, and force copulations, which can be viewed as a male persistence trait. We predicted that poeciliid females need to be more vigilant in the presence of noncourting males, and costs of harassment by noncourting males might be stronger. In a comparative approach we examined the costs of male sexual harassment for females as reduced feeding time in 9 species of live-bearing fishes, including courting (Poecilia latipinna, Poecilia reticulata, Xiphophorus cortezi, Xiphophorus variatus) and noncourting species (Poecilia mexicana [surface- and cave-dwelling form], Poecilia orri, Gambusia affinis, Gambusia geiseri, Heterandria formosa). In all species examined except for the cave form of P. mexicana, focal females spent significantly less time feeding in the presence of a male than when together with another female. The time females spent feeding was found to significantly decline with increasing male mating activity (sum of all sexual behaviors), but there was no support for the idea that females would spend more time feeding in the presence of courting males compared with noncourting ones.
Key words: courtship, Gambusia, mating tactics, Poecilia, sexual conflict, Xiphophorus.
Received 16 November 2006; revised 1 March 2007; accepted 10 March 2007.