caa a22 4500 475799720 CHVBK 20180406123734.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170329e20000501xx s 000 0 eng 10.1023/A:1001914208075 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1023/A:1001914208075 Variation of Female Preference for Male Coloration in the Eastern Mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki [Elektronische Daten] [Angelo Bisazza, Andrea Pilastro] The preference for melanistic males was studied in two populations of eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki, Pisces: Poeciliidae), one from Florida and one from northern Italy. Melanism in the eastern mosquitofish is a Y—linked character, expressed in males only. Melanistic males have black spots varying in size and number. In the Florida population, melanistic males are common, whereas in the Italian population they have never been observed. Females were male-deprived for at least 2 months before being tested in a dichotomous choice chamber. Italian females showed a significant preference for unpigmented males from their own population, whereas Florida females preferred melanistic males. When given the choice between males with few (<10% of the body surface) and males with many (>50%) black spots, Italian females preferred males with few black spots and Florida females those with many black spots. The preference of the Italian females for unpigmented males was confirmed in females reared from birth to maturity in the presence of only melanistic males. The preference of Florida females for melanistic males was also confirmed in females reared from birth to maturity in the presence of only unpigmented males. Altogether, these results demonstrate that in the eastern mosquitofish there is polymorphism in female preference and that this preference does not have an environmental basis. Plenum Publishing Corporation, 2000 Female choice nationallicence sexual selection nationallicence melanism nationallicence ornaments nationallicence poeciliids nationallicence rare phenotype nationallicence Poecilia reticulata nationallicence Bisazza Angelo Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Padova, via Venezia 8, I-35135, Padova, Italy aut Pilastro Andrea Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Padova, via U. Bassi 58/b, I-35131, Padova, Italy aut Behavior Genetics Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers 30/3(2000-05-01), 207-212 0001-8244 30:3<207 2000 30 10519 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1001914208075 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1001914208075 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Bisazza Angelo Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Padova, via Venezia 8, I-35135, Padova, Italy aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Pilastro Andrea Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Padova, via U. Bassi 58/b, I-35131, Padova, Italy aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Behavior Genetics Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers 30/3(2000-05-01), 207-212 0001-8244 30:3<207 2000 30 10519 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer