Prior information and social experience influence male reproductive decisions

Jesse Balaban-Feld and Thomas J Valone

Behavioral Ecology, 2017, vol. 28, issue 5, 1376-1383

Abstract: Lay SummaryMate preferences vary among individuals. We show that male fruit fly courtship preferences are influenced by their previous experiences. Males that previously experienced a population of mostly large, high-quality females biased their subsequent courtship behavior toward large females more than males that had previously experienced mostly small females. Males that had experienced mostly small, low-quality females, and who had mated with a small female, tended to bias their subsequent courtship toward such low-quality females.

Keywords: courtship preference; Drosophila melanogaster; mate choice; social experience; switch point theorem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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