Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 3, 2026
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Probing the Limits of Egg Recognition Using Egg Rejection Experiments Along Phenotypic Gradients
Published on: August 22, 2018
7.6K
Mate preference for a phenotypically plastic trait is learned, and may facilitate preference-phenotype matching.
Erica L Westerman1, Napon Chirathivat, Elizabeth Schyling
1Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 06511; Ecology & Evolution Department, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 60615. ewesterman@uchicago.edu.
Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
|February 18, 2014
Summary
Mate preferences can adapt to changing environments. In butterflies, learned mate preferences for specific traits, like wing spots, develop in males each generation, accommodating environmental variations.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Behavioral ecology
- Animal behavior
Background:
- Genetically fixed mate preferences may be disadvantageous when adult phenotypes vary with environment.
- Polyphenisms, or environmentally dependent phenotypes, require flexible mate preferences that are either non-polyphenic, polyphenic, or learned.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate mate preferences in relation to a female-limited seasonal polyphenism in dorsal hindwing spot number (DHSN) in the butterfly Bicyclus anynana.
- To determine if mate preferences for DHSN are seasonally polyphenic or learned across generations.
Main Methods:
- Described a female-limited seasonal polyphenism in DHSN in Bicyclus anynana.
- Tested for existing mate preferences in males and females for DHSN.
- Assessed whether preferences were seasonally polyphenic or learned.
Main Results:
- Naïve males and females showed no initial preference for DHSN.
- Males, but not females, detected variation in DHSN.
- Males learned mate preferences for DHSN across generations.
Conclusions:
- Learned mate preferences allow individuals to adapt to environmentally dependent phenotypic variation.
- Plasticity in learned mate preferences can be sexually dimorphic, with males exhibiting this trait more readily.
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