Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
J Evol Biol. 2010 Aug;23(8):1772-82. doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02042.x. Epub 2010 Jul 5.
In recent years, it has become evident that frequency dependence in the attractiveness of a particular phenotype to mates can contribute to the maintenance of polymorphism. However, these preferences for rare and unfamiliar male phenotypes have only been demonstrated in small, controlled experiments. Here, we tested the preference for unfamiliar mates in groups of six to 96 individuals over 13 days, in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). We observed individual behaviour in situ to test whether fish discriminate two unfamiliar individuals among many familiar ones. We found that unfamiliar males and females were preferred over the familiar fishes in all groups and that this effect decayed over time. Increasing group sizes and levels of sexual activity did not hamper the preference for unfamiliar mates, providing further support for the role of frequency dependent mate choice in the maintenance of trait polymorphism in natural populations.
近年来，人们已经认识到，对特定表型的配偶吸引力的频率依赖性可以有助于多态性的维持。然而，这些对稀有和不熟悉的雄性表型的偏好仅在小型控制实验中得到了证明。在这里，我们在 13 天内，在 6 到 96 个人的群体中，测试了对不熟悉配偶的偏好，所用的实验对象是孔雀鱼（Poecilia reticulata）。我们在现场观察个体行为，以测试鱼类是否能在众多熟悉的鱼类中区分出两个不熟悉的个体。我们发现，在所有群体中，不熟悉的雄性和雌性都比熟悉的鱼类更受欢迎，而且这种效果随着时间的推移而减弱。增加群体大小和性活动水平并没有阻碍对不熟悉配偶的偏好，这进一步支持了频率依赖的配偶选择在自然种群中维持特征多态性的作用。
