Behavioral Ecology Vol. 12 No. 4: 407-411
© 2001 International Society for Behavioral Ecology
Sexual signaling in the European bitterling: females learn the truth by direct inspection of the resource
School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
Address correspondence to U. Candolin, who is now at Department of Zoology, University of Bern, Wohlenstrasse 50a, CH-3032 Hinterkappelen, Switzerland. E-mail: ulrika.candolin{at}esh.unibe.ch .
Received 9 December 1999; revised 30 June 2000; accepted 18 September 2000.
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ABSTRACT |
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In many taxa females appear to base their mate choice on multiple traits. But the relative importance of different traits in mate choice has rarely been determined. Here we show that females of a freshwater fish, the European bitterling, Rhodeus sericeus, base their mate choice on multiple traits that differ in their reliability as indicators of expected reproductive success and are used at different stages of the decision process. The initial decision to inspect a male is based on male behavior and red coloration, whereas the final spawning decision is based on the quality of the live unionid mussel, Anodonta anatina, that the male is defending as an oviposition site. Male traits may indicate which males are worth inspecting by reflecting male quality, such as reproductive condition and genetic constitution. Male traits do not, however, reflect mussel quality, as bright males also court females vigorously toward mussels that yield a low probability of survival of the offspring. Females, on the other hand, are choosier than males in their choice of spawning site and seem to gain reliable information about the survival probability of the eggs by inspecting the mussel directly.
Key words: bitterlings, mate choice, multiple ornaments, reliable signaling, resource quality, Rhodeus sericeus, sexual selection.
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INTRODUCTION |
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TOPABSTRACTINTRODUCTIONMETHODSRESULTSDISCUSSIONREFERENCES |
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Sexual signaling involves a conflict of interest as the signaler benefits from misleading the receiver as to its mate quality whereas the receiver gains by accurately assessing the quality of the signaler (Johnstone, 1997
). Different
male traits are used as signals in mate attraction, and in some cases there is
evidence for the traits reflecting direct or indirect benefits of mating with
a male (reviewed by Andersson,
1994; Johnstone,
1995). An increasing number of studies show, however, that females
of some species also use the quality of the resource that the male is
defending as a cue in mate choice (e.g.,
Alatalo et al., 1986;
Balmford et al., 1992;
Carranza, 1995;
Goulet, 1998). Generally, it
can be expected that the importance of inspecting the resource would increase
with the influence of the resource on the number or quality of offspring
produced. This is especially likely because male traits may be subjected to
some cheating even in a stable system
(Johnstone and Grafen, 1993),
whereas the quality of the resource may be difficult to disguise.
Females may use multiple signals in mate choice if different signals
reflect different properties of male quality (the multiple message hypothesis)
or if they provide accurate overall assessment of male quality (the back-up
signal hypothesis; Iwasa and Pomiankowski,
1994; Johnstone,
1996), or if the use of multiple signals facilitates detection of
the male or takes advantage of arbitrary preferences
(Johnstone, 1997). However,
few studies have investigated the relative importance of different signals in
female mate choice. A complicating factor in studies of multiple signaling is
that the level of expression of different traits may be correlated within
individuals. The quality of the resource may be correlated with male
phenotypic traits if, for example, competition among males determines the
quality of the resources that the males can defend. In three-spined
sticklebacks, for example, males with concealed nests have a higher mating
success (Sargent, 1982;
Candolin and Voigt, 1998;
Guderley and Guevara, 1998;
Kraak et al., 1999), but it is
not known whether this is due to males that are attractive to females
occupying the best nest sites or to females preferring concealed nests.
The European bitterling (Rhodeus sericeus, Cyprinidae) is a
freshwater fish in which the quality of the resource is of crucial importance
for successful reproduction but can easily be manipulated. Males typically
defend one or more living freshwater mussels (Unionidae) and attract females
to spawn in the mussels. The males develop nuptial coloration consisting of
red-colored fins and eyes. The intensity of the red color shows large
variation among males, and the color of the fins can change within a few
minutes during courtship or when confronted with a competing male (Candolin U,
personal observation). Males court females with a distinctive quivering
display that draws females toward mussels. Females then inspect mussels by
pointing their heads down over the exhalent siphon of the mussel, presumably
picking up cues about the state of the mussel. If they accept the mussel, they
lay two to four eggs at a time into the gills of a mussel by rapidly inserting
a long ovipositor into the exhalent siphon of the mussel
(Heschl, 1989;
Wiepkema, 1961). Males
fertilize the eggs by releasing sperm over the inhalent siphon both before and
after female spawning. Females spawn repeatedly, and several females may spawn
in one mussel. Eggs hatch in 1-2 days, and the embryos remain inside the
mussel for 3-6 weeks, depending on temperature
(Reynolds et al., 1997). The
survival of the offspring depends on both the species of the mussel and on the
density of embryos already present in the mussel, with the mortality rate
increasing with the density of embryos
(Smith et al., 2000). It is
therefore important for the female to be able to determine the quality of the
mussel. Females have been found to avoid spawning in species of mussels with a
high density-dependent mortality rate and in mussels that already contain
large numbers of embryos (Smith et al.,
2000). It appears that females are able to determine the quality
of the mussel by inspecting the water flowing from the exhalent siphon.
We investigated the relative importance of mussel quality and male traits as cues in female spawning decisions. Females have a lower potential reproductive rate than males, and they may therefore be choosier than males in their choice of spawning site. Moreover, as the last eggs spawned into a mussel suffer most from density-dependent mortality (Mills and Reynolds, unpublished data), males may have little to lose from attracting females to a mussel that contains a large number of embryos independent of their paternity of the embryos. We determined whether male behavior and coloration honestly indicate the number of embryos present in a mussel. If a male does not adjust his signaling level to the quality of a mussel, a female might benefit from basing her mate choice on direct inspection of the mussel.
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METHODS |
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TOPABSTRACTINTRODUCTIONMETHODSRESULTSDISCUSSIONREFERENCES |
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Mussels, Anodonta anatina, were collected from Reach Lode, a slow-flowing canal that feeds into the River Cam in Cambridgeshire, England (see Reynolds and Guillaume, 1998
; Reynolds et al.,
1997). They were collected in mid-March 1999 before the onset of
the spawning season to ensure that they did not contain any bitterling
embryos. The mussels were transported to the University of East Anglia and
kept in outdoor pools. Bitterlings were collected from the same site as the
mussels by electrofishing in mid-April 1999 and kept indoors in large aquaria
(120 x 60 cm, 40 cm high) at the university. No damage to the fish from
electrofishing was noticed, and all fish remained healthy when brought to the
laboratory. The temperature for the fish was increased gradually from 15°
to 22°C, and the light cycle was set to match the natural cycle so that
the fish would enter reproductive condition. Bitterling females with
developing ovipositors were put into aquaria containing mussels and males in
breeding condition to stimulate the females to develop their ovipositors to
full size (as long as to the end of the tail). We covered the mussels at night
to prevent females from spawning in the mussels if they developed the
ovipositors overnight. To determine whether males adjust their behavior and coloration to mussel quality and to determine the relative importance of male traits and mussel quality to female spawning decisions, males were allowed to attract females to spawn in a high-quality (empty) mussel and a low-quality mussel (containing embryos from 8-10 spawnings by other males and females) in alternating order. We assigned mussels to the low-quality treatment after we had chosen them randomly from pairs of mussels that were size matched for body length (± 2 mm). We then exposed them to spawning by males and females that were not used for the subsequent behavioral test (size of mussels without embryos: mean ± SD = 93.2 ± 8.5 mm; mussels with embryos: 92.9 ± 9.0, paired t test, t13 = 0.69, p =.5). Mussels sometimes ejected eggs and embryos, and these were replaced through new spawnings. The eggs in the mussels were 1-4 days old when the mussels were given to the males. Each experimental male was given a new pair of mussels so that no mussel was used more than once.
To run the experiment, a randomly selected male in breeding condition (i.e., with nuptial coloration) was put into an aquarium (60 x 60 cm, 40 cm high) with an undergravel filter system and artificial vegetation and containing either an empty mussel or a mussel that contained embryos. After at least 1 day of acclimatization, a female with a fully developed ovipositor was put into the aquarium, and the behavior of the male and the female and the red coloration of the male were recorded as described below. If a female did not try to spawn within 15 min after she had first inspected a mussel, we stopped recording. In the field, inspections last a much shorter time than 15 min (Reynolds JD, personal observation), and females that did not spawn within this time were assumed not to want to spawn in the mussel. These females were capable of spawning; they all spawned when they were later used for a different purpose (i.e., filling mussels to be offered to other pairs of fish).
After recording, we measured male red coloration as described below, and the mussel and the female were removed from the aquarium. One to three days later, the male was given the other mussel, and a new female with a fully developed ovipositor was put into the aquarium. We recorded male and female behaviors as described below, and the red color of the male was again determined. The experiment was repeated for 14 males; half of the males were first given an empty mussel followed by a mussel containing embryos, and the other half received mussels in reverse order. This yielded a paired design for males. Different females were used each time.
Behavioral observations
For males, we recorded the time until start of courtship quivering, time
until first sperm release (which often occurs before spawning), and number of
sperm releases until first spawning attempt by the female. For females, we
recorded time until first inspection of the mussel and time until first
spawning attempt. Not all female spawning attempts lead to successful
spawning. Depending on the opening of the siphon, a female may try several
times before she succeeds in getting the ovipositor into the mussel.
Time until inspection of a mussel without embryos was square-root transformed to achieve normality. The same results are found if time until inspection of mussels with embryos are square-root transformed as well.
Measurement of red coloration
We determined the coloration of the male by photographing the male under
standardized conditions (Candolin,
1999) immediately after spawning or after 15 min had passed since
the female first inspected the mussel in cases where the female did not
attempt to spawn. The male was dip-netted and put into a small, water-filled
glass box (6 x 3 x 6 cm) that was placed in fixed position in a
large dark-box with a lock that excluded outer light. The left lateral side of
the male was photographed with a digital camera (Kodak DC 50) with a lateral
flash as the only light source. To make sure that the lighting conditions were
constant, three plastic strings of red, blue, and green colors on the front
side of the glass box served as color references in the analyses. The
photography procedure took only a few seconds, and the male was released back
into the aquarium afterward. We measured red coloration with image analyzing
software (Sigma Scan Pro, 4.0). Five pixels were selected randomly on the anal
fin, and five pixels were selected in the eye, and their average red index,
R (Frischknecht,
1993), was calculated for the fin and the eye by dividing the
brightness value (0-255) of the red component by the sum of the red, blue, and
green component values. We measured the intensity of red coloration instead of
the area of red because changes in red coloration occur through changes in the
intensity of red (Candolin U, personal observation).
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RESULTS |
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TOPABSTRACTINTRODUCTIONMETHODSRESULTSDISCUSSIONREFERENCES |
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Males did not change their behavior or coloration depending on the presence of embryos in a mussel (Table 1). However, male behavior and coloration did influence the time until a female first inspected a mussel: the time decreased the sooner the male had deposited sperm into a mussel and the more colorful he was (Table 2). Note that red coloration of the fin showed only a tendency to influence female behavior when the mussel was empty. Females never inspected a mussel or showed any interest in a male before the male had started to quiver and release sperm.
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Male traits had no significant effect on the probability that a female
would attempt to spawn (Table
2). For mussels without embryos, logistic regression of
probability of spawning against male traits could not be carried out because
all but one female spawned. There was also no significant relationship between
male traits and the time between inspection and first spawning attempt, though
the number of replicates was smaller for this analysis
(Table 2). Instead, the
probability of a spawning attempt was determined by the presence of embryos in
the mussel: females avoided spawning in mussels containing embryos
(Figure 1a; 
2 =
4.76, df = 1, p =.029), and when they did spawn, females spawned
sooner in mussels that lacked embryos than in ones containing embryos
(Figure 1b; t test for
unequal variances, t9,2 = 4.41, p =.002). In
three cases, eggs were ejected by the mussel after spawning. Ejected eggs were
always the newly deposited ones, and it was always from mussels that already
contained embryos.
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DISCUSSION |
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TOPABSTRACTINTRODUCTIONMETHODSRESULTSDISCUSSIONREFERENCES |
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Bitterling females used multiple signals in their spawning decision, with different signals being used at different stages of the process. Male behavior and coloration influenced the initial decision to inspect a mussel, but mussel quality determined whether the female tried to spawn in the mussel. The relationship between male traits and female inspection behavior was most likely due to females responding to male traits and not to males responding to differences in female willingness to spawn, as females did not inspect mussels before being courted by the male.
Females may have used male traits as cues in the initial decision of
whether to inspect a mussel because the traits may indicate male quality. Mate
choice most likely carries costs in terms of time and energy expenditure and
perhaps increased predation risk (Jennions
and Petrie, 1997; Reynolds and
Gross, 1990), and a female may therefore only approach a male and
inspect his mussel if this is likely to result in successful reproduction with
a high-quality male. Male traits may here signal direct benefits to the
female, such as that the male is in breeding condition and able to fertilize
the embryos, or the traits could reflect additional genetic benefits to the
young. In particular, the red carotenoid-based coloration of the fins may
reflect the nutritional condition and quality of the male, as has been
suggested for other species with carotenoid-derived coloration
(Hill and Montgomerie, 1994;
Kodric-Brown, 1989;
Milinski and Bakker,
1990).
Male traits may, however, not reflect mussel quality. When males were given mussels of different quality, they did not adjust their courtship behavior or red coloration to the quality of the mussels. A female may therefore need to inspect the mussel directly to determine the quality of the mussel and the survival probability of the eggs. Males are probably less choosy then females in their choice of spawning site because of their higher potential reproductive rate, and they may continue to attract females to a mussel as long as the marginal benefits of attracting females to the mussels are higher than the marginal benefits of searching for other empty mussels. This requires that some females spawn in low-quality mussels, which might be the case if females differ in their choosiness due to differences in the costs of searching for better mussels.
In the field, male-male competition might increase the correspondence
between male traits and mussel quality if males compete for the best mussels
and the expression of the traits matches male dominance and fighting ability.
In several species male traits have been found to be used both as cues in mate
choice and as status or threat signals in male-male competition
(Berglund et al., 1996). It is
possible that the traits of the bitterling male also play this dual role in
sexual selection and that a male with a large trait expression usually defends
the best mussels. However, the correlation between mussel quality and male
quality may decrease as the defended mussels become filled with embryos. At
the peak of the spawning season, all mussels of the species used here (A.
anatina) greater than approximately 75 mm in length contain bitterling
embryos (Reynolds and Guillaume,
1998). Three other species of mussels are available, two of which
are used regularly (Unio pictorum and U. tumidus), and one
of which is avoided (Anodonta cygnea;
Reynolds et al., 1997;
Smith et al., 2000). The costs
to the male of searching for high-quality mussels with a low number of embryos
may therefore become high as the best mussels become filled. A possibility
remains that males change their traits with time when they are aware of the
number of females that have spawned in the mussel or when the number of
females that reject the mussel increases.
In conclusion, this study shows that bitterling females use multiple cues in mate choice, with different cues being used at different stages of the decision process. The cues vary in their value as indicators of the mortality risk of the eggs, and the final spawning decision is based on the cue that most reliably reflects the survival probability of the eggs.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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We thank Alex Douglas, Steve LeComber, Erik Petersson, Carl Smith, and Bill Sutherland for comments on the manuscript, Suzie Mills for advice and assistance, and Geoff Eagles and Martin Perrow for technical help. This research was funded by the Academy of Finland to U.C. and by the Natural Environment Research Council, UK, to J.D.R.
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