Abstract
The first results of female preference and chosen male mating success in a new model organism, the pentamorphic livebearing fish, Poecilia parae, are presented. Poecilia parae is a relative of the guppy, P. reticulata, and is assumed to have similar reproductive behavior. We tested the hypothesis that P. parae females, like female guppies, prefer caretenoid colored males as mates. Here we show that the time a female spent with males was significantly greater for carotenoid coloration in red and yellow melanzona, but time with these two morphs did not differ. The preferred red and yellow males mated significantly more often with their choosing females than did the non-preferred blue and parae males. The few blue melanzona and parae males that mated did so without performing courtship displays. Some females mated with all phenotypes including immaculata males during open group trials. Female P. parae clearly preferred males with carotenoid coloration, thereby corroborating the hypothesis. Alternative male mating tactics by blue melanzona, parae, and immaculata morphs and promiscuous mating by females also resembled features of reproductive behaviors exhibited by guppies.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the National Geographic Society, Smithsonian Institution's Biodiversity of Guianas Program, Conservation, Food and Health Foundation, ERM Group Foundation, Norcross Wildlife Foundation, Field Museum of Natural History, and CEIBA Biological Center for support. CEIBA provided access to facilities and facilitated acquisition of research and collecting permits from the Guyana EPA. O. Clarke, M. Karl, and M. and C. Wade assisted with collecting, husbandry, and data acquisition. D.B. Tobin and R.A. Rodney assisted with the cover photograph. We also thank C. Bourne, D. Tobin, and anonymous reviewers for commenting on a previous draft of the manuscript. We followed the ethical animal care and use guidelines for vertebrate studies and were issued a permit by the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
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Bourne, G.R., Breden, F. & Allen, T.C. Females prefer carotenoid colored males as mates in the pentamorphic livebearing fish, Poecilia parae . Naturwissenschaften 90, 402–405 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-003-0444-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-003-0444-1