Mg. Ritchie, THE SHAPE OF FEMALE MATING PREFERENCES, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Statesof America, 93(25), 1996, pp. 14628-14631
The ''shape'' of a female mating preference is the relationship betwee
n a male trait and the probability of acceptance as a mating partner,
The shape of preferences is important in many models of sexual selecti
on, mate recognition, communication, and speciation, yet it has rarely
been measured precisely, Here I examine preference shape for male cal
ling song in a bushcricket (katydid). Preferences change dramatically
between races of a species, from strongly directional to broadly stabi
lizing (but with a net directional effect), Preference shape generally
matches the distribution of the male trait, This is compatible with a
coevolutionary model of signal-preference evolution, although it does
nor rule out an alternative model, sensory exploitation. Preference s
hapes are shown to be genetic in origin.