Data from: Change in male colouration associated with artificial selection on foraging colour preference

Sensory drive proposes that natural selection on non‐mating behaviours
(e.g. foraging preferences) alters sensory system properties and results
in a correlated effect on mating preferences and subsequently sexual
traits. In colour‐based systems, we can test this by selecting on
non‐mating colour preferences and testing for responses in colour‐based
female preferences and male sexual colouration. In guppies (Poecilia
reticulata), individual functional links of sensory drive have been
demonstrated providing an opportunity to test the process over more than
one link. We measured male colouration and female preferences in
populations previously artificially selected for colour‐based foraging
behaviour towards two colours, red and blue. We found associated changes
in male colouration in the expected direction as well as weak changes in
female preferences. Our results can be explained by a correlated response
in female preferences due to artificial selection on foraging preferences
that are mediated by a shared sensory system, or by other mechanisms such
as colour avoidance, pleiotropy or social experiences. This is the first
experimental evidence that selection on a non‐mating behaviour can affect
male colouration and, more weakly, female preferences.