Data from: The effects of familiarity and mating experience on mate choice in mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki

A preference to mate with novel partners has been shown for both males and females in a range of taxa. Preferences for novel mates may result from direct recognition of previous sexual partners, or from other cues that predict this, such as familiarity. Costs and benefits of mating with multiple mates differ for males and females. Despite this, few studies have tested whether the sexes differ in their preferences for novel mates. Here, we investigated whether males and/or females showed preferences for novel mates and whether this differed depending on the type of experience with a familiar mate (i.e., previously allowed to mate or allowed visual and olfactory exposure only) in the eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki). We show that mosquitofish prefer to associate with novel fish and that there was no significant difference between the sexes in the strength of this preference if the choosing fish had previously had an opportunity to mate. In contrast, males and females that had not recently mated and were familiar due solely to visual and olfactory contact did not have a preference for novel mates. Our results suggest that there are likely to be benefits of mating with multiple partners for both males and females.已有研究表明，在多个分类群中，雄性与雌性均表现出与新配偶交配的偏好。对新配偶的偏好，可能源于对过往性伴侣的直接识别，或是源自其他可预示该识别的线索，例如熟悉度。雄性与雌性在与多名配偶交配的成本与收益上存在差异。尽管存在上述差异，但鲜有研究检验不同性别在新配偶偏好上是否存在分歧。本研究以东部食蚊鱼（Gambusia holbrooki）为研究对象，探究雄性和/或雌性是否表现出对新配偶的偏好，以及该偏好是否因与熟悉配偶的接触类型（即此前允许交配，或仅允许视觉与嗅觉接触）而有所不同。研究结果显示，食蚊鱼更倾向于与陌生个体结伴；若受试个体此前拥有交配机会，则两性在该偏好强度上无显著差异。与之相反，近期未发生交配且仅通过视觉与嗅觉接触熟悉配偶的雌雄个体，均未表现出对新配偶的偏好。本研究结果表明，无论雄性还是雌性，与多名配偶交配均可能存在收益。