Audience effects in a sexually polymorphic species: Audience morph generates plasticity in mating behavior

A full understanding of mating behavior includes placing mating effort and mating success in the context of the social environment. Audience effects occur when individuals adjust their behavior in response to the presence of conspecifics, a form of plasticity in mating behavior generated by the social environment. Some species exhibit sexual polymorphism, such that one male morph courts females, whereas the other sneaks copulations without courting. Audience effects in such taxa have rarely been investigated. We examined the effects of conspecific audience morph, sex, and body size on mating effort and mating success in the sexually polymorphic poeciliid fish, Girardinus metallicus, whose males either sneak copulation (plain morph) or display to females (black morph). We found evidence that focal fish (black morph male and female) recognized the audiences as conspecifics with unique identities. We demonstrated that focal black morph males had lower mating success when observed by a plai..., , , # Data from: Audience effects in a sexually polymorphic species: Audience morph generates plasticity in mating behavior

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhgx](10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhgx)

## Description of the data and file structure

**Description of the data and file structure**

These data were collected for an experimental study examining audience effects in the polymorphic species, Girardinus metallicus. We examined the effects of conspecific audience morph, sex, and body size on mating effort and mating success in G. metallicus.

1\. Title of Dataset: Audience Effects in a sexually polymorphic species: audience morph generates plasticity in mating behavior

2\. Author Information

A. Principal Investigator Contact Information

Name: Gita R. Kolluru

Institution: California Polytechnic State University

Address: San Luis Obispo, CA USA

Email: [[e-mail] (opens in new window)](mailto:[e-mail])

3\. Date of data collection: 2019-2020

4\. Geographic location of ...,