Abstract
Sexual signals indicate species identity and mate quality, and their importance for mate attraction is largely recognized. Recently, research in animal communication has started to integrate multiple signal modalities and evaluate their interactions. However, mate choice experiments across animal taxa have been limited to laboratory conditions, and assessments of multiple sexual signals under field conditions are still lacking. We take advantage of the divergence in visual and acoustic signals among populations of the Neotropical poison frog Oophaga pumilio to evaluate the importance of male advertisement calls and color patterns in female mate selection. Previous mate choice experiments in this species suggested color-assortative female mate preferences across many populations. Nevertheless, acoustic signals are crucial for sexual selection in frogs, and males of O. pumilio use advertisement calls to attract females. We hypothesize that both advertisement calls and coloration affects female mate selection in O.pumilio. To test this hypothesis we tested 452 receptive females from six populations in Costa Rica and Panama in their natural home ranges for preferences regarding local vs. non-local advertisement calls and color patterns. Overall, the calls overrode the effect of coloration, whereby most females preferred local over non-local calls. We found a tendency to prefer brighter (but not necessarily local) males in two populations. Furthermore the strength of preferences varied geographically, and thus might be involved in prezygotic isolation among populations. The stronger effect of calls on mate attraction is associated with acoustic divergence between genetic groups in the species, while colour pattern diversity is mostly located within one genetic group, i.e. not linked to large-scale population structure. Finally our data highlights the importance to consider an array of signal modalities in multiple wild populations in studies of behavioral isolation.
Highlights
A prerequisite for speciation to proceed is ongoing diversification between different groups in a single species
FEMALE PREFERENCES FOR LOCAL vs. NON-LOCAL CALLS AND COLORATION In experiment I female strawberry poison frogs did not discriminate between the local call and the local group call on species, group or population level
Tests were conducted for each experiment on species-level, group-level and on population level
Summary
A prerequisite for speciation to proceed is ongoing diversification (phenotypically or genetically) between different groups in a single species. Diversification can be promoted by natural selection (e.g., predation pressure), sexual selection or genetic drift (Panhuis et al, 2001; Sobel et al, 2010; Butlin et al, 2012) and their interactions, while habitat heterogeneity and geographic isolation generally contribute to trait divergence (Rundle and Nosil, 2005; Maan and Seehausen, 2011). Divergence in male sexual signals acting in concert with female preferences may lead to assortative mate-choice, which triggers (incomplete) reproductive isolation and constrains gene flow between diverging subpopulations or incipient species (Panhuis et al, 2001; Maan and Seehausen, 2011). Acoustic signals in insects, birds, and anuran species are involved in assortative mate choice, causing prezygotic isolation between genetically divergent populations or incipient species (Wilkins et al, 2013)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
