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Male lagoon gobies, Knipowitschia panizzae, prefer more ornamented to larger females

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Abstract

Female ornamentation may be directly sexually selected, by male choice or female competition, or occurs as the result of a genetic correlation, arising from sexual selection on males. However, increasing evidence supports the former hypothesis, suggesting that males actively choose their partner preferring traits indicative of female quality. In the lagoon goby, Knipowitschia panizzae, a polygynous species whose males perform parental care to eggs, body length and the size of a sex-specific yellow patch on the belly are known to be reliable indicators of female fecundity. In this paper, we tested, using dummies, the male’s mating preferences for female body and yellow belly patch sizes. The two experimental trials in which a single female trait was variable showed that males prefer a larger belly patch and a larger body size, indicating that both these characters are selected by male mate choice. However, when faced with dummies exhibiting an inverse combination of body and belly patch sizes (experiment 3), males significantly preferred the smaller ones with larger yellow belly patches. A calculation of dummy theoretical fecundity reveals that in the first two experiments, males would have received an immediate benefit from their choice in terms of egg number, whereas in the third one, males chose partners that would have provided them with fewer eggs. The male lagoon goby preference for females with larger belly patches, regardless of their size, suggests that this trait, in addition to indicating fecundity, conveys information about other aspects of female and/or egg quality.

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Acknowledgments

This research was performed at the Hydrobiological Station of Chioggia (University of Padova), whose staff we thank. We wish to thank A. Pilastro for help with the experimental design, C. Petersen and C. Romualdi for statistical advice and two anonymous referees for the review of the manuscript. The work was financially supported by Ministero Italiano dell’Università e della Ricerca Scientifica grants. All experiments were conducted in accordance with Italian laws on the treatment of animals.

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  1. Department of Biology, University of Padova, via U. Bassi 58/B, Padova, 35131, Italy

    Matteo Pizzolon, Maria B. Rasotto & Carlotta Mazzoldi

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  1. Matteo Pizzolon
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  2. Maria B. Rasotto
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  3. Carlotta Mazzoldi
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Correspondence to Carlotta Mazzoldi.

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Communicated by C. Gabor

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Pizzolon, M., Rasotto, M.B. & Mazzoldi, C. Male lagoon gobies, Knipowitschia panizzae, prefer more ornamented to larger females. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62, 521–528 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0476-1

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