Safe betting: males help dull females only when they raise high-quality offspring

@article{Morales2011SafeBM,
  title={Safe betting: males help dull females only when they raise high-quality offspring},
  author={Judith Morales and Roxana Torres and Alberto Velando},
  journal={Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology},
  year={2011},
  volume={66},
  pages={135-143}
}
In evolutionary biology, whether parents should enhance or reduce parental care according to mate ornamentation is a subject of great debate. However, the evolution of female ornaments can shed light on this question. In theory, female ornamentation should be traded off against fecundity and thus cannot be wholly informative to males without a direct indication of fecundity. Hence, direct cues of offspring quality should affect the relationship between male investment and female ornamentation… 
View on Springer
avelando.webs.uvigo.es
16 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
1
Background Citations
6
Results Citations
1

16 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Enhanced male coloration after immune challenge increases reproductive potential
TLDR
Blue‐footed booby males inoculated with a diphtheria–tetanus vaccine during courtship were found to invest more in sexual signals when future breeding opportunities are at risk, eliciting a greater reproductive investment by their partners.
Mutual ornamentation and the parental behaviour of male and female Collared Flycatchers Ficedula albicollis during incubation
TLDR
The behaviour of both partners during incubation predicted hatching patterns and was correlated with their own and sometimes with their partner's plumage ornamentation, including plumage-level reflectance attributes and white patch sizes.
Eggshell coloration and its importance in postmating sexual selection
TLDR
The correlative results seem to support a role of sexual selection in the evolution of eggshell coloration in birds laying brown eggs, pigmented mainly by protoporphyrin.
Female-female competition is influenced by forehead patch expression in pied flycatcher females
TLDR
The findings suggest that the forehead patch plays a role in female intrasexual competition, and it is interpreted that non-patched females probably avoided repeating costly agonistic encounters with the most dominant rivals.
Context-dependent relationships between multiple sexual pigments and paternal effort
TLDR
As predicted based on genetic paternity data, the relationship between melanin pigmentation and paternal effort varied with the level of carotenoid pigmentation expressed by males, with males expressing high levels of both pigment types provisioning late-stage nestlings at enhanced rates.
Hot or Not: The Effects of Exogenous Testosterone on Female Attractiveness to Male Conspecifics in the Budgerigar
TLDR
The findings indicate that selection for higher levels of testosterone in male budgerigars is probably not constrained by a correlated response to selection causing negative effects on female attractiveness during initial mate choice, and that a potential constraint may arise from negative testosterone-induced effects on other fitness related traits in females.
Does egg colouration signal female and egg quality in reed warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus)?
TLDR
The results revealed that eggshell pigmentation appears to be independent of female condition and parasites, but reflects concentrations of egg compounds such as testosterone and lysozyme, which suggests a genetic component.
Variation in maternal solitary bee nest defence related to nest state
TLDR
This observational experiment using Megachile rotundata found that mothers slightly increased nest defence as nest size increased, however, unlike traditionally studied organisms, this increase in defence continued until the nest was completed.
Experimental evidence that adult UV/yellow colouration functions as a signal in blue tit families — but only for parents
In bi-parental species, reproduction is not only a crucial life-history stage where individuals must take fitness-related decisions, but these decisions also need to be adjusted to the…
Determinants of parental care in Mountain White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha)
TLDR
It is suggested that mate quality is a predictor of food provisioning behavior in males but not females, thus providing some sex-specific support for the differential allocation hypothesis, while finding conclusive evidence for the good parent or reproductive compensation hypotheses.
...
1
2
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 67 REFERENCES
Egg investment is influenced by male attractiveness in the mallard
TLDR
It is shown that individual female mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) lay larger eggs after copulating with preferred males and smaller eggs afterCopulating with less preferred males, showing that differences between half-sibs cannot always be attributed to paternal or maternal genetic effects.
Good genes sexual selection in nature
  • J. Byers, L. Waits
  • Psychology
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • 2006
TLDR
It is concluded that female choice for good genes can exist in the absence of ornaments and female choice may be important and unrecognized as a force that can lower population genetic load.
Compensatory investment in zebra finches: females lay larger eggs when paired to sexually unattractive males
TLDR
It is shown that female zebra finches invested more resources, both in terms of egg volume and yolk carotenoid content, when paired to a low genetic quality male, as judged from his previous ability to obtain extra-pair paternity in aviary colonies, the first experimental support for the compensatory investment hypothesis in a species with lifetime monogamy.
Can non-directional male mating preferences facilitate honest female ornamentation?
TLDR
This work investigates the evolution of male mating preferences using a mathematical model which specifically accounts for the fact that females must trade-off resources invested in ornaments with reproduction; and allowsmale mating preferences to evolve a non-directional shape.
Maternal investment in eggs is affected by male feet colour and breeding conditions in the blue-footed booby, Sula nebouxii
TLDR
It is found that blue-footed booby females probably favour brood reduction by decreasing egg quality and increasing size asymmetry between chicks when the breeding and the mate conditions are poor.
Male rock sparrows adjust their breeding strategy according to female ornamentation: parental or mating investment?
TLDR
The results provide some of the first evidence that not only female, but also male, birds change breeding strategy according to their mate’s phenotype in the wild.
Parental conflict and blue egg coloration in a seabird
TLDR
Results suggest that indication of reproductive value reduces the conflict over care and that biliverdin-based egg coloration reflects female quality features that are associated with pair incubation effort or that blue-footed boobies mate assortatively high-quality pairs incubating more colorful clutches.
Color in a Long-Lived Tropical Seabird
Fecundity compromises attractiveness when pigments are scarce
TLDR
It is highlighted that pigment limitation for females could represent an evolutionary pathway to male choosiness in the blue-footed booby, and carotenoid availability may mediate the theoretical trade-off between ornamentation and fecundity.
The hypothesis of reproductive compensation and its assumptions about mate preferences and offspring viability
TLDR
Results of experimental tests of the offspring-viability assumption in Tanzanian cockroaches, fruit flies, pipefish, wild mallards, and feral house mice show that the number of eggs laid or offspring born was higher when female choosers were experimentally constrained to reproduce with males they did not prefer.
...
1
2
3
4
5
...