Sex, Color, and Mate Choice in Guppies - Rilegato

Houde, Anne E.

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0691027900 ISBN 13: 9780691027906

Casa editrice: Princeton Univ Pr, 1997

Riassunto

The Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata) is well known to biologists and home aquarium enthusiasts alike. Scientists have studied guppies for most of the twentieth century. Some of the most intensive recent research has been conducted by behavioral ecologists, who have found that the guppy mating system makes guppies especially useful in the study of sexual selection and mate choice. By observing guppy behavior in aquaria, researchers hope to obtain new insights into how selection operates in natural populations. Here Anne Houde summarizes and synthesizes the scientific work done to date, relates the empirical findings on guppies to current themes in sexual selection theory, and suggests new directions for future research.

This book describes the sexual behavior of guppies and examines how mate choice by females leads to the evolution of the conspicuous colors and the courtship displays for which guppies are widely recognized. The author shows that female guppies prefer males with bright color patterns, especially those with orange spots, and that the mating preferences of females lead to sexual selection on both color patterns and courtship displays of males. Houde's work addresses a number of areas that are of interest in sexual selection, including the remarkable degree of plasticity and evolutionary lability of sexual behavior in guppies, geographic variation in mating preferences, possible mechanisms for the evolution of female mating preferences, and the role of sexual selection in speciation. In conclusion, the author explores the implications of her findings for behavioral ecologists who study sexual selection in other species.

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Recensione:

"[I]mportant to biologists who study guppies, and, like much of the rest of this book . . . of interest to researchers into sexual selection in other species as well. . . . [A]n inspiring guide to future directions in behavioural ecology."--Nature

Contenuti:

	Acknowledgments
1	Introduction: The Guppy as a Model System	3
2	Reproductive Biology and Sexual Behavior	29
3	Choosy Females and Competing Males: Mechanisms of Sexual Selection	45
4	Male Courtship Behavior	80
5	Evolution of Female Choice 1: Direct Selection, Adaptive Plasticity, and Sensory Drive	104
6	Evolution of Female Choice 2: Indirect Selection, Variation, and Correlations	123
7	Summary and Prospects	155
Appendix	Experimental Methods: How to Build a Better Bordello	165
	References	177
	Author Index	201
	Subject Index	205
	Taxonomic Index	209

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Princeton Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0691027900
• ISBN 13: 9780691027906
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 210