Choosy males court both large, colourful females and less colourful but responsive females for longer

Lüdtke, Deike U.; Foerster, Katharina

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.09.018

Cited by 5 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…In a previous study, we found indeed that male Alpine newts courted more orange bellied females for longer than less orange ones (Lüdtke and Foerster, 2018). In that study, however, we also found that males courted longer for larger females.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

“…To invest the available sperm optimally, male Alpine newts should decide to court very fecund females or females whose eggs have a high reproductive value. Our findings suggest that by choosing to court more orange females (Lüdtke and Foerster, 2018), Alpine newt males gain adaptive advantages through a potentially higher number of fertilized eggs. Further, through the speedy laying pattern of orange females, there is a better chance that a high number of these eggs will be deposited on suitable substrate, and that a high number of hatchlings will be born early enough to get a head start in their development compared to other competing larvae in the pond.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…Prior to the experiment, we measured reflectance of the ventral sides to quantify the color of the females' bellies. We measured reflectance in two different regions (belly and throat) from 380 to 700 nm using a spectroradiometer (SpectraScan PR 670, Photo Research Inc., Syracuse, NY, U.S.A.) (see also Lüdtke and Foerster, 2018). Each reflectance spectrum was calculated relative to a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE 98) white reflectance standard (Berghof Fluoroplastic Technology GmbH, Eningen, Germany) with the program Spectrawin 5.0 (Avantes, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands).…”

Section: Color and Size Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We therefore expect that the belly pigmentation might function as nuptial ornamentation in this species. We recently found that male Alpine newts exhibited preference toward certain females (Lüdtke and Foerster, 2018). Males spent more time courting larger females and females that had more orange bellies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Although studies on female ornamentation are not as numerous, we now know that in some species, males may also base their choice on female secondary sexual ornaments. This was predominantly documented for sex-role reversed species (e.g., Berglund and Rosenqvist, 2001), but an increasing number of studies also demonstrate a male preference for ornamented females in otherwise conventional sex-roles (e.g., Torres and Velando, 2005;Baldauf et al, 2011;LaPlante, 2015;Belliure et al, 2018;Lüdtke and Foerster, 2018). Females of the rock sparrow, Petronia petronia, for example, have a yellow breast patch and males were found to court females with a smaller or experimentally reduced patch size less intensely and less frequently (Griggio et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Female Color Ornament Honestly Signals Fecundity

Lüdtke

Foerster

2019

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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In many species, particularly in ectothermic vertebrates, not only males but also females show bright body colorations. In Alpine newts, Ichthyosaura alpestris, both sexes have colorful orange bellies. This coloration varies in redness (yellowish to dark orange) among individuals, and previous work has shown that courting males preferred females with more orange bellies. Because males in this species are likely to be limited in their mating capacity, selection would favor this preference if this coloration honestly signals female quality. In this study, we investigated whether female belly coloration can predict individual fecundity in which case males might have the chance to fertilize more eggs when they choose to mate with a more ornamented female. We found that more orange females were more fertile than less orange ones. Additionally, we saw that more ornamented females could lay their eggs faster, which means that they ceased egg laying at a similar time as less ornamented females despite the greater number of eggs. This suggests that female color can convey quality advantages in a species with no sex-role reversal much in the same way as male colors can, making female ornaments subject to sexual selection acting directly on them.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Color and Size Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Female Color Ornament Honestly Signals Fecundity

Lüdtke

Foerster

2019

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Carotenoids‐based reddish pelvic spines in nonreproducing female and male sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) – Signalling social dominance?

Kroken

Sæthre

Nicolaisen

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Does egg carotenoid improve larval quality in Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus)?

Egeland

Nordeide

2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Females in mutually ornamented species are often less conspicuously ornamented than their male conspecifics. It has been hypothesized that offspring quality may decrease if females invest more resources into ornaments at the expense of resources in eggs. An experiment was carried out to test whether natural variation in carotenoid in the eggs from a wild population of Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) was associated with survival and growth of their offspring until hatching. Wild Arctic charr were caught at a spawning ground during the spawning period. Eggs from two different females, one female with yellowish carotenoid-rich eggs and one with paler eggs, were fertilized by sperm from the same male. This was repeated until gametes were collected from 42 females and 21 males, giving a total of 21 groups. After fertilization, the zygotes from each of the two females were reared in four replicated groups. These 168 groups were reared separately until hatching when the surviving larvae were counted and their body length measured. For the two response variables survival and body length at hatching, no effect was demonstrated of any of the predictors (i) amount of carotenoid in the unfertilized eggs, (ii) the mothers' body condition, or (iii) ornament intensity of their red carotenoid-based abdominal ornament. Thus, this study gives no support for the hypothesis that females investing less carotenoid into their eggs suffer from decreased offspring quality until hatching. This lack of association between female ornament intensity and their fitness is not as expected if female ornaments evolved due to direct sexual selection from males on the more ornamented females ("direct selection hypothesis").

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Choosy males court both large, colourful females and less colourful but responsive females for longer

Cited by 5 publications

References 58 publications

A Female Color Ornament Honestly Signals Fecundity

A Female Color Ornament Honestly Signals Fecundity

Carotenoids‐based reddish pelvic spines in nonreproducing female and male sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) – Signalling social dominance?

Does egg carotenoid improve larval quality in Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus)?

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