Sexual imprinting, learning and speciation

Learned mate preferences may play an important role in speciation. Sexual i mprinting is a process whereby mate preferences are affected by learning at a very young age, usually using a parent as the model. We suggest that whi le the origins of learning appear to lie in the advantages of individual re cognition, sexual imprinting results from selection for recognition of cons pecifics. This is because efficient early learning about one's own species is favoured in the presence of heterospecifics. If different species are hy bridizing, both sexual imprinting and learning to avoid heterospecifics dur ing adulthood promote assortative mating and hence speciation. As a result of sexual imprinting, speciation may also be completed in allopatry when di vergence between populations is sufficient to prevent interbreeding when th e populations reunite, even in the absence of genetic evolution of mate pre ference. The role of behaviour and learning in completing the speciation pr ocess is relatively overlooked. In particular the evolution of sexual impri nting as a result of selection against hybridization warrants more study.