Data from: Nineteen years of consistently positive and strong female mate preferences despite individual variation

Sexual selection driven by mate choice has generated some of the most astounding diversity in nature, suggesting population-level preferences should be strong and consistent over many generations. On the other hand, mating preferences are among the least repeatable components of an individual animal's phenotype, suggesting low consistency across an animal's lifetime. Despite decades of intensive study of sexual selection there is almost no information about the strength and consistency of preferences across many years. In this study we present the results of over 5000 mate choice tests with a species of wild frog conducted over 19 consecutive years. Results show that preferences are positive and strong and vary little across years. This consistency is despite the fact that there are substantial differences among females in their strength of preference. We also suggest mate preferences in populations that are primarily the result of sensory exploitation might be more stable over time compared to preferences that are primarily involved in assessing male quality.

由配偶选择（mate choice）驱动的性选择（sexual selection）塑造了自然界中最为惊人的多样性之一，这表明种群层面的配偶偏好应当具备较强的强度，并能在多代繁衍中保持稳定。但另一方面，交配偏好却是动物个体表型（phenotype）中可重复性最低的特征之一，这表明个体的配偶偏好于整个生命周期内一致性极低。尽管学界对性选择已开展数十年的深入研究，但目前几乎没有关于配偶偏好强度及其跨多年度一致性的相关数据。本研究呈现了针对一种野生蛙类开展的、横跨19个连续年度的5000余组配偶选择实验结果。实验结果表明，种群的配偶偏好呈现正向且较强的态势，且年度间差异极小。尽管雌性个体间的偏好强度存在显著差异，但种群层面仍保持了上述一致性。本研究还提出，相较于主要用于评估雄性质量的配偶偏好，以感官利用（sensory exploitation）为核心驱动因素的种群配偶偏好或许具备更高的长期稳定性。