Ibáñez Alejandro, Marzal Alfonso, López Pilar, Martín José
Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, C.S.I.C., José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, E-28006, Madrid, Spain.
Naturwissenschaften. 2013 Dec;100(12):1137-47. doi: 10.1007/s00114-013-1118-2. Epub 2013 Nov 20.
Many studies have shown the importance of colorful ornamentation in mate choosiness or intrasexual conflict. However, research on color ornaments has focused mainly on birds, lizards or fish, but remains practically unknown in other animal groups such as turtles. In addition, female ornaments and their relation with sexual selection also remain almost unknown. Here, we measured the coloration of the shell and the limb stripes of male and female Spanish terrapins Mauremys leprosa and explored the existence of sexual dichromatism and the relation of color characteristics with body size and health state estimated from the immune response to the injection of an antigen (phytohaemagglutinin test). Our results showed that shell coloration, which could be constrained by natural selection to be cryptic, changed with body size, but did not differ between sexes. In contrast, females had brighter and less ultraviolet-saturated and more orange-saturated limb stripes than males. In females, interindividual variation in limb stripe coloration was related with body size and immune response suggesting that this coloration may inform honestly about multiple traits that could be important in sexual selection. In contrast, coloration of limb stripes of males was duller than in females, and was not related with any trait suggesting that coloration is not important in sexual selection for males.
许多研究表明，色彩斑斓的装饰在配偶选择或同性冲突中具有重要意义。然而，对色彩装饰的研究主要集中在鸟类、蜥蜴或鱼类上，而在其他动物群体（如龟类）中实际上仍不为人所知。此外，雌性的装饰及其与性选择的关系也几乎不为人知。在此，我们测量了西班牙池龟（Mauremys leprosa）雄性和雌性的背甲颜色以及四肢条纹，并探讨了两性异色现象的存在，以及颜色特征与根据对抗抗原注射（植物血凝素测试）的免疫反应估计的体型和健康状况之间的关系。我们的结果表明，背甲颜色可能受自然选择限制而具有保护色，它随体型变化，但两性之间没有差异。相比之下，雌性的四肢条纹比雄性更鲜艳，紫外线饱和度更低，橙色饱和度更高。在雌性中，四肢条纹颜色的个体间差异与体型和免疫反应有关，这表明这种颜色可能诚实地反映了在性选择中可能重要的多个特征。相比之下，雄性的四肢条纹颜色比雌性暗淡，且与任何特征均无关联，这表明颜色在雄性的性选择中并不重要。
