Data from: Conspicuous female ornamentation and tests of male mate preference in threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

Sexual selection drives the evolution of exaggerated male ornaments in many animal species. Female ornamentation is now acknowledged also to be common but is generally less well understood. One example is the recently documented red female throat coloration in some threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) populations. Although female sticklebacks often exhibit a preference for red male throat coloration, the possibility of sexual selection on female coloration has been little studied. Using sequential and simultaneous mate choice trials, we examined male mate preferences for female throat color, as well as pelvic spine color and standard length, using wild-captured threespine sticklebacks from the Little Campbell River, British Columbia. In a multivariate analysis, we found no evidence for a population-level mate preference in males, suggesting the absence of directional sexual selection on these traits arising from male mate choice. Significant variation was detected among males in their preference functions, but this appeared to arise from differences in their mean responsiveness across mating trials and not from variation in the strength (i.e., slope) of their preference, suggesting the absence of individual-level preferences as well. When presented with conspecific intruder males, male response decreased as intruder red throat coloration increased, suggesting that males can discriminate color and other aspects of phenotype in our experiment and that males may use these traits in intrasexual interactions. The results presented here are the first to explicitly address male preference for female throat color in threespine sticklebacks.性选择推动了诸多动物类群中夸张雄性装饰物的演化。如今雌性装饰物虽已被普遍认为普遍存在，但相关机制通常仍未得到充分阐释。三刺棘鱼（Gasterosteus aculeatus）部分种群中雌性喉部红色着色的现象，便是新近被记录的典型案例之一。尽管雌性三刺棘鱼通常偏好具有红色喉部色泽的雄性，但针对雌性色泽所受性选择的研究却相对匮乏。本研究利用从加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省小坎贝尔河野外捕获的三刺棘鱼，通过先后式与同时式配偶选择试验，探究了雄性对雌性喉部色泽、骨盆棘色泽以及标准体长的配偶偏好。多变量分析结果显示，未发现雄性存在种群水平的配偶偏好，这表明雄性配偶选择并未对这些性状产生定向性选择。尽管不同雄性的偏好函数存在显著差异，但该差异似乎源于各雄性在交配试验中的平均响应度差异，而非偏好强度（即斜率）的变化，这表明雄性也不存在个体水平的配偶偏好。当遭遇同种雄性入侵者时，雄性的响应程度随入侵者喉部红色着色程度的加深而减弱，这表明在本试验中雄性能够分辨色泽及表型的其他特征，且雄性可能在种内互动中利用这些性状。本研究所得结果，首次针对三刺棘鱼雄性对雌性喉部色泽的配偶偏好进行了明确探究。