VARIATION OF FEMALE PREFERENCE INFLUENCES THE MAINTENANCE OF PHENOTYPIC DIVERSITY

Abstract

Female preference is one of the main components of sexual selection that can affect intraspecific phenotypic diversity. In some animal species, the phenotypic landscape of one of the sexes presents a bimodal or multimodal distribution and these phenotypes also differ in their reproductive tactics. Here, I evaluated how female preference influences the coexistence of two male alternative reproductive tactics in the jumping spider Maevia inclemens. I employed no-choice tests to analyze variation of female preference between different locations and between the two morphs.Females present a negative-frequency dependent sexual preference choosing the rare morph. Additionally, the female preference functions differ between morphs and these differences can contribute to the maintenance of the discreetness of the traits of the morphs. These results highlight the importance of variation of female preference in the maintenance of alternative reproductive tactics. They also show that negative-frequency dependent selection and diversifying selection contribute to the coexistence of both morphs in the species.