Male genital morphology and its influence on female mating preferences and paternity success in guppies.

ABSTRACT: In internally fertilizing species male genitalia often show a higher degree of elaboration than required for simply transferring sperm to females. Among the hypotheses proposed to explain such diversity, sexual selection has received the most empirical support, with studies revealing that genital morphology can be targeted by both pre-and postcopulatory sexual selection. Until now, most studies have focused on these two episodes of selection independently. Here, we take an alternative approach by considering both components simultaneously in the livebearing fish, Poecilia reticulata. We allowed females to mate successively (and cooperatively) with two males and determined whether male genital length influenced the female's propensity to mate with a male (precopulatory selection, via female

SUBMITTER: Gasparini C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3142123 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature