Female Mate Choice Behavior with Static Models of Japanese Quail (Coturnix japonica)

Abstract Morphological and territorial factors that influence female mate choice were examined in the monogamous Middendorff's Grasshopper-Warbler (Locustella ochotensis) on an islet near Fukuoka, Japan. I assumed that pairing date corresponded with female mate choice. Pairing date was correlated with both territory size and food abundance but was not correlated with selected morphological characteristics of males. Territorial quality was assumed to be correlated with territory size because preferable food resources and nest sites were distributed randomly. I conclude that female mate choice was influenced by territory quality rather than by the morphological characteristics of males.

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Perceived mate competition risk influences the female mate choice and increases the reproductive effort in the annual killifish Millerichthys robustus

Ethology Ecology & Evolution ◽

10.1080/03949370.2021.1893827 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-13

Author(s):

Omar Domínguez-Castanedo

Keyword(s):

Mate Choice ◽

Reproductive Effort ◽

Female Mate Choice ◽

Mate Competition ◽

Female Mate ◽

Annual Killifish

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The fruitless gene affects female receptivity and species isolation

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2019.2765 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 287 (1923) ◽

pp. 20192765 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tabashir Chowdhury ◽

Ryan M. Calhoun ◽

Katrina Bruch ◽

Amanda J. Moehring

Keyword(s):

Mate Choice ◽

Critical Role ◽

Sensory Modality ◽

Female Mate Choice ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Female Receptivity ◽

Female Mate ◽

Multiple Transcripts ◽

Female Behaviour ◽

Substrate Vibrations

Female mate rejection acts as a major selective force within species, and can serve as a reproductive barrier between species. In spite of its critical role in fitness and reproduction, surprisingly little is known about the genetic or neural basis of variation in female mate choice. Here, we identify fruitless as a gene affecting female receptivity within Drosophila melanogaster , as well as female Drosophila simulans rejection of male D. melanogaster . Of the multiple transcripts this gene produces, by far the most widely studied is the sex-specifically spliced transcript involved in the sex determination pathway. However, we find that female rejection behaviour is affected by a non-sex-specifically spliced fruitless transcript. This is the first implication of fruitless in female behaviour, and the first behavioural role identified for a fruitless non-sex-specifically spliced transcript. We found that this locus does not influence preferences via a single sensory modality, examining courtship song, antennal pheromone perception, or perception of substrate vibrations, and we conclude that fruitless influences mate choice via the integration of multiple signals or through another sensory modality.

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Female butterflies prefer males bearing bright iridescent ornamentation

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2006.0043 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 274 (1613) ◽

pp. 1043-1047 ◽

Cited By ~ 94

Author(s):

Darrell J Kemp

Keyword(s):

Mate Choice ◽

Driving Force ◽

Female Mate Choice ◽

Sex Recognition ◽

Female Mate ◽

Wing Colour ◽

Enclosure Experiments ◽

Colour Patterns

Butterflies are among nature's most colourful animals, and provide a living showcase for how extremely bright, chromatic and iridescent coloration can be generated by complex optical mechanisms. The gross characteristics of male butterfly colour patterns are understood to function for species and/or sex recognition, but it is not known whether female mate choice promotes visual exaggeration of this coloration. Here I show that females of the sexually dichromatic species Hypolimnas bolina prefer conspecific males that possess bright iridescent blue/ultraviolet dorsal ornamentation. In separate field and enclosure experiments, using both dramatic and graded wing colour manipulations, I demonstrate that a moderate qualitative reduction in signal brightness and chromaticity has the same consequences as removing the signal entirely. These findings validate a long-held hypothesis, and argue for the importance of intra- versus interspecific selection as the driving force behind the exaggeration of bright, iridescent butterfly colour patterns.

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