Summary
The threespine stickleback,Gasterosteus aculeatus is a voracious cannibal of both its own eggs and those of conspecific neighbours. Females, but not males, can distinguish their progeny from those of other fish and attacked alien eggs more frequently. In experiments to examine nest raiding, females that initiated raids on nests resulting in cannibalism were the first females to spawn in the reconstructed nest. These results support the hypothesis that cannibalism by females may be adaptive in situations where intense female competition for male guardians occurs.
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FitzGerald, G.J., van Havre, N. The adaptive significance of cannibalism in sticklebacks (Gasterosteidae: Pisces). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 20, 125–128 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00572634
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00572634