Abstract
The role of experience in shaping individual female mating preferences has been relatively neglected. The goal of this study was to examine how female mating preferences are shaped through male–female interactions in the clonally reproducing female gynogenetic fish,Poecilia formosa. In visual choice tests, someP.formosapreferredP.latipinnamales and others preferred males of another poeciliid species,Xiphophorus multilineatus. After interacting with the same males, but without a transparent barrier between them, females originally preferringX.multilineatusswitched their preference toP.latipinnamales. Females can therefore change their preferences based on experience. The degree of male sexual behaviour may contribute to this change in preferences, but the direct cause is unknown. As a control, we examined how experience influenced preferences ofP.latipinnaandP.formosafemales that had originally preferredP.latipinna. males. Female preferences of the sexual speciesP.latipinnawere statistically indistinguishable from preferences ofP.formosawith an initial preference forP.latipinnamales. The preferences of these two female groups were not influenced by interactions with their preferred male (P.latipinna). The post-encounter preferences ofP.formosafemales that originally preferredX.multilineatusalso became statistically indistinguishable from these two groups of females. Female preference changes based on experience may also be generalized to males with similar traits.Poecilia formosainitially preferringX.multilineatusdid not revert back to their original preference when exposed to a new pair of males, but demonstrated a significant decrease in the amount of time spent withX.multilineatusmales compared withP.latipinnamales. 1997 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
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