Academics
The Evolutionary Effects of Mate Choice Copying
Brooks R. 1999. Mate choice copying in guppies: females avoid the place where they saw courtship. Behaviour 136: 411-421.
Dugatkin LA. 1998. A Comment on LaFleur et al's re-evaluation of mate-choice copying in guppies. Animal Behavior 56: 513-514.
Dugatkin LA, Godin JJ. 1998. Effects of hunger on mate-choice copying in the guppy. Ethology 104: 194-202.
LaFleur DL, Lonzano GA, & Sclafani M. 1997. Female mate-choice copying in guppies, Poecilia reticulata: a re-evaluation. Animal Behavior 54: 579-586.
"Mate-choice copying occurs if the mate selection by one female, and not the consequences of this choice, affects the mate selection of another female (LaFleur et al. 1997)." Previous experimentation performed by Dugatkin has exhibited mate-choice copying in the female guppy, Poecilia reticulata. This behavior may benefit the female by either passing along "good genes" to her offspring or by reducing the time spent on male selection, thus allowing more time for foraging. Various articles have addressed the topic of mate-choice copying and determined that this behavior is not correlated with foraging strategy, but through further experimentation, may be seen to be linked to predator avoidance.
Dugatkin's work has been the most influential in exhibiting mate-choice copying in female guppies and his testing apparatus has been used for most experiments performed on this topic. The basic setup of the experiment was a confined female, the focal female, in a center confinement tank within a larger experimental tank. This female was allowed to observe two side containers, one holding a model male's courtship behaviors with a female and the other holding only a male. After the allotted amount of time, the model female was removed from the side holding container and the focal female was released from her holding container, allowing her to swim about the larger experimental tank. Mate-choice copying was displayed in Dugatkin's experimentation when the focal female swam to and lingered on the side where the model male and female were exhibiting courtship behaviors.
However, in the article, "Female Mate-Choice Copying in Guppies, Poecilia reticulata: A Re-evaluation," by LaFleur et al., the evidence found by Dugatkin was not reproduced. Essentially, Dugatkin's experiment was replicated with no significant modifications. LaFleur's team used guppies purchased from a local pet store rather than using guppies from the Turure River in Trinidad. It was this modification which was important because LaFleur's results did not reflect the same experiment Dugatkin performed. Using guppies from artificial sites, fail at concluding anything significant about mate-choice copying. There is no way to determine that these guppies in any way similar to those from Trinidad in feeding regimes or any other aspect of living.
This sparked interest in doing experimentation showing the effects of female guppy's foraging in relation to mate choice. Dugatkin, along with Godin, set up an experiment investigating the effect of hunger on the female guppy¹s mate-choice copying tendency. By manipulating the hunger level of the females and observing them using the same testing apparatus, as before, the more well-fed females significantly exhibited mate-choice copying. This unexpected result was explained by the argument that only well-fed females have the extra time to stop foraging and look at the mate-choice of other females (Dugatkin and Godin 1998).
Brooks performed an experiment, in the article "Mate Choice Copying in Guppies: Females Avoid the Place Where They Saw Courtship," where there was no evidence of mate-choice copying in feral Australian population of guppies (1999). With evidence of hunger not affecting mate-choice copying, this experiment was performed to see if the different sides of the tank had an affect on females and this behavior. It has previously been suggested that females avoid males, which display at a high rate because not only does a male's display attract females, but it also attracts predators (Houde, 1997). Brooks found that the side of the tank is significant because females also tended to avoid the side of the tank that the model male was on courting a female guppy. This experimentation is strong evidence that perhaps predator avoidance is a point supporting female mate-choice copying. In order to test this hypothesis further, more experimentation needs to be performed. The significance of female-mate choice copying is that this behavior may have an effect on the evolution on the gene pools of guppies. If certain females choose certain other females continuously copy males and this behavior, sexual selection will occur. And if sexual selection were to occur, over time, the evolution would happen, choosing the most selected model males in a population of guppies. Furthermore, mate-choice copying may be linked to the amount of orange coloring on the male guppy, leading to a selection of males, which have the "perfect" amount of orange, time and time again by the female guppy.