Social plasticity in choosiness in green tree frogs, Hyla cinerea

Mate choice is an important driver of the evolution of sexual traits and can promote divergence and speciation. Understanding the underlying variation in mate choice decisions is crucial to understand variation in the strength and direction of sexual selection. We explored whether variation in the social environment influences mate choice decisions and focus on the aspect of mate choice termed choosiness (i.e. the effort invested in mate assessment and acquisition). Using call playbacks, we manipulated the social environment female green tree frogs would experience as they entered a chorus, and then we conducted two-choice playback trials to assess whether females exhibited social plasticity in choosiness. We explored social plasticity at 2 levels: in one experiment, we manipulated the presence or absence of preferred (attractive) and less preferred (unattractive) conspecific males (i.e. intraspecific context), and in the other experiment, we manipulated the presence or absence of prefe...