THE INFLUENCE OF EXPERIENCE ON MATING PREFERENCES OF THE GYNOGENETIC AMAZON MOLLY

The role of experience in shaping individual female mating preferences has been relatively neglected. The goal of this study was to examine how female mating preferences are shaped through male-female interacti ons in the clonally reproducing female gynogenetic fish, Poecilia form osa. In visual choice tests, some P.formosa preferred P. latipinna mal es and others preferred males of another poeciliid species, Xiphophoru s multilineatus. After interacting with the same males, but without a transparent barrier between them, females originally preferring X. mul tilineatus switched their preference to P. latipinna males. Females ca n therefore change their preferences based on experience. The degree o f male sexual behaviour may contribute to this change in preferences, but the direct cause is unknown. As a control, we examined how experie nce influenced preferences of P. latipinna and P. formosa females that had originally preferred P, latipinna males. Female preferences of th e sexual species P. latipinna were statistically indistinguishable fro m preferences of P. formosa with an initial preference for P. latipinn a males. The preferences of these two female groups were not influence d by interactions with their preferred male (P. latipinna). The post-e ncounter preferences of P.formosa females that originally preferred X. multilinentus also became statistically indistinguishable from these two groups of females. Female preference changes based on experience m ay also be generalized to males with similar traits. Poecilia formosa initially preferring X. multilineatus did not revert back to their ori ginal preference when exposed to a new pair of males, but demonstrated a significant decrease in the amount of time spent with X. multilinea tus males compared with P. latipinna males. (C) 1997 The Association f or the Study of Animal Behaviour.