Male coercive mating in externally fertilizing species: male coercion, female reluctance and explanation for female acceptance.

ABSTRACT: Male coercive mating exerts a strong evolutionary pressure on mating-related traits of both sexes. However, it is extremely rare in externally fertilizing species probably because the male mating behaviour is incomplete until females release their eggs. Here we showed that males of the externally fertilizing fish Rhabdoblennius nitidus coercively confine females to the nests until spawning, and investigated why females accept male coercive mating. The females entered the males' nests following male courtship displays, but they usually tried to escape when there were no eggs because males tended to cannibalize all the eggs when there were few. Most males that used small, tight nests acquired new eggs but with experimentally enlarged nests, 90% of the males without eggs failed to confine the

SUBMITTER: Matsumoto Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4834473 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature