Increased signalling effort when survival prospects decrease: male–male competition ensures honesty

Candolin, Ulrika

doi:10.1006/anbe.2000.1481

Cited by 100 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…We allowed males with hints of nuptial coloration to build nests in individual 10 l flow-through tanks containing a nesting dish [26] in an outdoor facility with natural light, temperature and seawater conditions. We fed males defrosted chironomid larvae twice a day.…”

Section: Materials and Methods (A) Nest Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The sexual selection paradigm: have we overlooked other mechanisms in the evolution of male ornaments?

Candolin

Tukiainen

2015

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Extravagant male ornaments expressed during reproduction are almost invariably assumed to be sexually selected and evolve through competition for mating opportunities. Yet in species where male reproductive success depends on the defence of offspring, male ornaments could also evolve through social competition for offspring survival. However, in contrast to female ornaments, this possibility has received little attention in males. We show that a male ornament that is traditionally assumed to be sexually selected—the red nuptial coloration of the three-spined stickleback—is under stronger selection for offspring survival than for mating success. Males express most coloration during parenting, when they no longer attract females, and the colour correlates with nest retention and hatching success but not with attractiveness to females. This contradicts earlier assumptions and suggests that social selection for offspring survival rather than for sexual selection for mating success is the main mechanism maintaining the ornament in the population. These results suggest that we should consider other forms of social selection beyond sexual selection when seeking to explain the function and evolution of male ornaments. An incorrect assignment of selection pressures could hamper our understanding of evolution.

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Section: Materials and Methods (A) Nest Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The sexual selection paradigm: have we overlooked other mechanisms in the evolution of male ornaments?

Candolin

Tukiainen

2015

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…I used a tristimulus system constructed to ¢t the human eye since the colour vision of sticklebacks does not di¡er greatly from that of humans (reviewed by Frischknecht 1993;McKinnon 1995). I determined the extent and quality of the red coloration from the digital images using image analysing software (MCID-M4, Imaging Research, Inc., St Catherines, Ontario, Canada) (see Candolin (1999b) for details). The size of the male's red area is given as a p ercentage of his total lateral area.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in expression and honesty of sexual signalling over the reproductive lifetime of sticklebacks

Candolin

2000

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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Fitness costs of signalling are essential in order for reliable sexual signalling to prevail when the interests of the sexes con£ict. This means that signalling can be subjected to a life history trade-o¡ between present and future signalling e¡ort. Here, I show that three-spined stickleback males (Gasterosteus aculeatus), who have a single breeding season during which they breed repeatedly, change their red nuptial coloration over the season dep ending on their body size at the start of breeding. Large males that completed several breeding cycles increased their red coloration over the season, whereas small males, who completed only a few cycles, did not. The increase in coloration was accompanied by an increase in parental success when males were energy constrained, but not when they had access to an unlimited food supply. Red coloration was thus an honest signal of male parental ability despite changes in signal expression when both signalling and parental care were costly and the investments in them changed simultaneously over the reproductive lifetime. However, the honesty of the signal varied over a lifetime. At the penultimate cycle, bright males cannibalized some of their eggs, probably to increase survival to the last cycle, whereas males cared for their o¡spring independent of coloration at the ultimate cycle.

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“…Hence throat coloration likely correlates with foraging ability, metabolic efficiency, and/or the quality of (e.g., availability of nutrients in) the male's territory. 3) Social interactions between rival males enact a fitness cost; false advertising draws attention from adversaries that might otherwise ignore the advertiser (Candolin 2000).…”

Section: The Visual Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal mechanisms for finding and selecting mates: how threespine stickleback ( Gasterosteus aculeatus ) should encode male throat colors

Rowe

Baube

Loew

et al. 2004

Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Sensory, Neural, and Behav

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Increased signalling effort when survival prospects decrease: male–male competition ensures honesty

Cited by 100 publications

References 30 publications

The sexual selection paradigm: have we overlooked other mechanisms in the evolution of male ornaments?

The sexual selection paradigm: have we overlooked other mechanisms in the evolution of male ornaments?

Changes in expression and honesty of sexual signalling over the reproductive lifetime of sticklebacks

Optimal mechanisms for finding and selecting mates: how threespine stickleback ( Gasterosteus aculeatus ) should encode male throat colors

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