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A TEST FOR SEXUAL SELECTION ON HYBRIDS OF TWO SYMPATRIC STICKLEBACKS
Author(s) -
Hatfield Todd,
Schluter Dolph
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1996.tb03629.x
Subject(s) - biology , sympatric speciation , reproductive isolation , hybrid , mating preferences , sexual selection , mating , mate choice , selection (genetic algorithm) , stickleback , sympatry , disruptive selection , hybrid zone , ecological selection , evolutionary biology , zoology , ecological speciation , ecology , genetics , natural selection , gene flow , genetic variation , fish <actinopterygii> , population , fishery , demography , artificial intelligence , sociology , computer science , botany , gene
In this study we assessed whether sexual selection against hybrids contributes to reproductive isolation between two sympatric stickleback species. The species are recently diverged and possibly in the final stages of speciation. Our aim was to find whether mating discrimination of the parental species selects against F 1 hybrids, and what conditions are necessary for such sexual selection to operate. We used conservative no‐choice laboratory trials with reproductively naive, lab‐reared fish to measure female mating preferences. Females exhibited ranked preferences, preferring in order: conspecific, hybrid, then heterospecific males. However, intermediate attractiveness does not necessarily imply selection against hybrids: two‐way ANOVAs suggested that limnetic, benthic, and hybrid males were statistically equivalent when averaged across females. Thus, this experiment found no evidence for a hybrid mating disadvantage. Our interpretation is that if sexual selection against hybrids is present in the wild, then some factor that biases encounter rates between hybrids and parental species (e.g., habitat selection) is necessary to produce it.