Signals and behavioural responses are not coupled in males: aggression affected by replacement of an evolutionarily lost colour signal.

Abstract

Male Sceloporus virgatus lack the blue abdominal patches which are used during aggressive encounters in other Sceloporus lizards. Herein we report that, despite having lost this signal, males have retained a behavioural response to experimentally restored blue abdominal patches. We tested two adaptive hypotheses: selection acted primarily upon signallers or selection acted upon both signallers and receivers. The first predicts that only the signal is lost and that male interactions should be affected by the restoration of blue patches. The latter predicts that both the signal and behavioural response are lost and the display of the restored blue patches should have no effect on male-male interactions. We compared the behaviour of receivers in paired encounters where one male (signaller) had blue-painted abdominal patches to a set of trials where both males had white-painted abdomens, unmanipulated abdomens or a novel-painted pattern. The receivers of the blue-painted signal were more likely to display submissive behaviour. The receivers in either the unmanipulated, white-painted or novel-painted signal trials were more likely to display neutral behaviour. These results support the hypothesis that receivers have retained a behavioural response and selection has acted primarily on the signaller. We believe this is the first documentation of males responding to an evolutionarily lost signal in conspecific males.