FEMALE MATE-CHOICE COPYING IN GUPPIES, POECILIA-RETICULATA - A REEVALUATION

It has been argued that intraspecific mate-choice copying can be adapt ive under certain conditions. Dugatkin's (1992, Am. Nat., 139, 1384-13 89) work with guppies, Poecilia reticulata, remains the most influenti al experimental demonstration of this phenomenon. We replicated Dugatk in's work using several choice criteria to ensure that our results wer e not dependent upon any single method of judging mate choice. We also tested our findings against two null hypotheses of differing stringen cy. Irrespective of the choice criteria or null hypothesis used, we di d not observe any relationship between female mate choice and copying. We conclude that further experimental evidence of female mate-choice copying is required before the existence of this behaviour can be affi rmed. (C) 1997 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.