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Animal Behaviour
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/anbehav
Commentary
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 19 August 2015
Initial acceptance 23 September 2015
Final acceptance 1 February 2016
Available online
MS. number: 15-00714R
Keywords:
mate choice
ornamentation
sexual conflict
sexual harassment
sexual selection
One of the most striking patterns in nature is the sexual (e.g. Alonzo & Warner, 1999; Simmons & Bailey, 1990). If we accept
dimorphism in animal sexual ornaments (Andersson, 1994; the premise that males, while not as choosy as females, still exert
Darwin, 1871). Exaggerated ornamental traits are far more com- some choice of mates, then the question arises: why do females not
mon in males than females. Moreover, in at least some, if not most, signal their sexual quality via ornamental secondary sexual traits
of the species in which we see some female ornamentation, it is like males do?
rudimentary and possibly due to intersexual genetic correlations Taking typical sex roles as a given, there are two classical ex-
(Poissant, Wilson, & Coltman, 2010; Tobias, Montgomerie, & Lyon, planations for this lack of female ornamentation. One is that fe-
2012). Exaggerated traits are largely believed to be favoured in males need to be more camouflaged than males (natural selection
males because females tend to be choosy (as a result of their greater is stronger on them for cryptic coloration: Wallace, 1889) and the
parental investment: Trivers, 1972) and males signal to attract other is that the fecundity costs borne by a female signalling this
choosy females (Andersson, 1994). Yet, this explanation for the way would not be repaid via male mate choice, and hence females
prevalence of exaggerated male ornaments does not fully explain with exaggerated sexual traits would have lower fitness (Gwynne,
the general absence of ornaments in females. We would argue that 2001). That is, the fitness cost of producing the exaggerated trait
in many, if not most taxa, some male mate choice still occurs (e.g. would be prohibitive and females would do better to spend their
Bonduriansky, 2001; Trivers, 1972), even if it is limited to males limited resources on additional eggs. Our purpose here is to suggest
selecting females of the right species to signal to and mate with. an additional explanation for the lack of ornamentation that also
Additionally, we know that males do make reproductive decisions highlights an interesting area of future research.
based on direct indicators of female quality (such as body size), in at We suggest that female ornamentation may be disadvantageous
least some taxa. For example, males adjust ejaculates based on if more attractive females disproportionally attract male attention
assessment of female quality (e.g. Gage, 1998; Martin & Hosken, (Fig. 1). There is abundant evidence that mating and male sexual
2002; Simmons, Craig, Llorens, Schinzig, & Hosken, 1993; Wedell harassment can be costly to females (e.g. Chapman, Liddle, Kalb,
& Cook, 1999) and even refuse to mate with low-quality females Wolfner, & Partridge, 1995; Crudgington & Siva-Jothy, 2000; Gay,
or when mating opportunities are likely to return few fertilizations Eady, Vasudev, Hosken, & Tregenza, 2009; Hosken, Martin, Born, &
Huber, 2003; Le Boeuf & Mesnick 1991; Parker, 1978; reviewed in
Arnqvist & Rowe, 2005). If this were the case, then more attractive
females would have lower fitness because of increased male
* Correspondence: D.J. Hosken, Centre for Ecology & Conservation, University of
Exeter, Cornwall, Tremough, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9EZ, U.K. harassment and the costs associated with that (Fig. 1). Thus the
E-mail address: d.j.hosken@exeter.ac.uk (D. J. Hosken). high-quality (most attractive) females most able to bear the costs of
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.02.015
0003-3472/© 2016 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
200 D. J. Hosken et al. / Animal Behaviour 114 (2016) 199e201
the possibility that this could be a contributing factor, and as Long Gay, L., Eady, P. E., Vasudev, R., Hosken, D. J., & Tregenza, T. (2009). Costly sexual
harassment in a beetle. Ecological Entomology, 34, 86e92.
et al. (2009) noted, perhaps this is a pervasive hidden cost of sexual
Gwynne, D. J. (2001). Katydids and bushcrickets: Reproductive behavior and evolution
selection. of the Tettigonidae. Ithaca, NY: Comstock Publishers.
Hosken, D. J., Martin, O. Y., Born, J., & Huber, F. (2003). Sexual conflict in Sepsis
Acknowledgments cynipsea: female reluctance, fertility and mate choice. Journal of Evolutionary
Biology, 16, 485e490.
Jones, A. G., & Ratterman, N. L. (2009). Mate choice and sexual selection: what have
We thank the Editor and the anonymous referees for helpful we learned since Darwin? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A.,
comments and the Leverhulme Trust, NERC and the Royal Society 106S, 10001e10008.
Kotiaho, J. S. (2000). Testing the assumptions of conditional handicap theory: costs
for funding. and condition dependence of a sexually selected trait. Behavioral Ecology &
Sociobiology, 48, 188e194.
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