Serial effects of mate-choice copying in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

Abstract

The mate choice of an individual can be socially influenced by having previously observed the choice of others. The extent to which a copied mating preference can be socially transmitted from individual to individual within a population is not known. We therefore ascertained experimentally the consecutive number of females whose mate preference can be influenced by an initial previous act of mate-choice copying in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). We show that an initial act of mate-choice copying affected the mating preferences of significantly more observer females, tested consecutively in a series, than control females which were not given any prior opportunity to observe the apparent mate choice of another (model) female. Our results suggest that the social effect of matechoice copying is not restricted to the initial copier, but rather can subsequently affect the mating preferences of other females in the population at a frequency greater than expected by chance alone.