Dreher Corinna E, Rodríguez Ariel, Cummings Molly E, Pröhl Heike
Institute of Zoology University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation Hannover Germany.
Section of Integrative Biology University of Texas Austin TX USA.
Ecol Evol. 2017 Nov 1;7(24):10503-10512. doi: 10.1002/ece3.3531. eCollection 2017 Dec.
Sexual signals are important for intraspecific communication and mate selection, but their evolution may be driven by both natural and sexual selection, and stochastic processes. Strawberry poison frogs () show strong color divergence among populations, but coloration also varies among individuals of the same population. The importance of coloration for female mate choice has been studied intensely, and sexual selection seems to affect color divergence in strawberry poison frogs. However, the effect of coloration on mating success under field conditions has received very little attention. Furthermore, few studies examined how phenotypic variation among individuals of the same color morph affects mate selection under natural conditions. We measured the spectral reflectance of courting and noncourting individuals and their background substrates in three geographically separated populations. In one population (Sarapiquí, Costa Rica), we found that naturally occurring courting pairs of males and females had significantly brighter dorsal coloration than individual males and females not engaged in courtship interactions. Our field observations suggest that, in the wild, females prefer brighter males while the reason for the higher courtship activity of brighter females remains unclear. Overall our results imply that brightness differences among individuals of the same color morph may actually affect reproductive success in some populations of strawberry poison frogs.
性信号对于种内交流和配偶选择很重要，但其进化可能受到自然选择、性选择以及随机过程的驱动。草莓箭毒蛙（ ）在不同种群间表现出强烈的颜色差异，但在同一种群的个体之间颜色也有所不同。颜色对于雌性配偶选择的重要性已得到深入研究，性选择似乎影响着草莓箭毒蛙的颜色差异。然而，在野外条件下颜色对交配成功率的影响却很少受到关注。此外，很少有研究探讨同一颜色形态的个体之间的表型变异如何在自然条件下影响配偶选择。我们测量了三个地理隔离种群中求偶和非求偶个体及其背景底物的光谱反射率。在其中一个种群（哥斯达黎加的萨拉皮卡）中，我们发现自然形成的求偶雌雄对的背部颜色比未参与求偶互动的个体雌雄更亮。我们的野外观察表明，在野外，雌性更喜欢更亮的雄性，而更亮的雌性求偶活动更高的原因尚不清楚。总体而言，我们的结果表明，同一颜色形态的个体之间的亮度差异实际上可能会影响某些草莓箭毒蛙种群的繁殖成功率。
