Abstract
According to rational choice theory, beneficial preferences should lead individuals to sort available options into linear, transitive hierarchies, although the extent to which non-human animals behave rationally is unclear. Here we demonstrate that mate choice in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster results in the linear sorting of a set of diverse isogenic female lines, unambiguously demonstrating the hallmark of rational behaviour, transitivity. These rational choices are associated with direct benefits, enabling males to maximize offspring production. Furthermore, we demonstrate that female behaviours and cues act redundantly in mate detection and assessment, as rational mate choice largely persists when visual or chemical sensory modalities are impaired, but not when both are impaired. Transitivity in mate choice demonstrates that the quality of potential mates varies significantly among genotypes, and that males and females behave in such a way as to facilitate adaptive mate choice.
Highlights
According to rational choice theory, beneficial preferences should lead individuals to sort available options into linear, transitive hierarchies, the extent to which non-human animals behave rationally is unclear
Males are the sex given the choice in potential mates in these trials, both male and female behaviours probably contribute to the resulting mate choice
We have demonstrated that mate choice in fruit flies shows the major hallmark of rational decision-making, transitivity, and that this transitivity is repeatable across males from several unrelated populations
Summary
According to rational choice theory, beneficial preferences should lead individuals to sort available options into linear, transitive hierarchies, the extent to which non-human animals behave rationally is unclear. We demonstrate that mate choice in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster results in the linear sorting of a set of diverse isogenic female lines, unambiguously demonstrating the hallmark of rational behaviour, transitivity These rational choices are associated with direct benefits, enabling males to maximize offspring production. To fully understand behavioural evolution of any organism, it is critical to know whether individuals of any species make transitive and rational choices, as transitive choices reflect variation both in quality among alternatives and in the chooser’s ability to detect and evaluate such variation Each of these factors, as well as the fitness consequences of decisions, influence the potential for quality, the signals of that quality, and preferences for these signals to respond to selection. As mating displays are complex and the relationships between separate display traits are unclear, it does not necessarily follow that linear preferences for individual sexual traits will lead to mate choice transitivity
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