Mate copying in Drosophila simulans

To facilitate the search for a suitable mating partner, many animals across all taxa use social information. One form of social learning is mate copying, in which individuals use information about potential mates by copying the mate choices of other individuals. While many studies have documented mate copying in Drosophila melanogaster and its potential for cultural evolution in the laboratory, little is known about mate copying in other Drosophila species. Here we report the first evidence that Drosophila simulans females can also acquire a sexual preference for a particular trait of a male after observing a single mating event. We used the same protocol developed for D. melanogaster: A naïve, unmated female first observes a conspecific's mate choice between one artificially colored green and one artificially colored pink male, and is subsequently allowed to choose between two males of the same phenotype herself. Just as with D. melanogaster, D. simulans females were more likely to cho..., , # Mate copying in Drosophila simulans

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.zs7h44jmc](10.5061/dryad.zs7h44jmc)

## Description of the data and file structure

We conducted behavioural observations of the mate choice decisions of *Drosophila simulans* females from three different populations to test whether they copy the mate choice of their conspecifics.

### Files and variables

#### File: Data\_Dsim.xlsx

**Description:** 

##### Variables

| Variable | Explanation | Level |
| :----------- | :--------------------------------------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Experimentor | Who did the experiment | SN (Sabine Nöbel)/TK (Tim Kaufmann) ...,