Data from: Audience effects in a sexually polymorphic species: Audience morph generates plasticity in mating behavior
Data files
Sep 01, 2025 version files 48.64 KB
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Audience_Effects_Analysis___Figures_-_Animal_Behaviour.Rmd
30.28 KB
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Focal_response_to_audience.csv
6.69 KB
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Main_dataset_audience_effects.csv
7.34 KB
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README.md
4.33 KB
Abstract
A full understanding of mating behavior includes placing mating effort and mating success in the context of the social environment. Audience effects occur when individuals adjust their behavior in response to the presence of conspecifics, a form of plasticity in mating behavior generated by the social environment. Some species exhibit sexual polymorphism, such that one male morph courts females, whereas the other sneaks copulations without courting. Audience effects in such taxa have rarely been investigated. We examined the effects of conspecific audience morph, sex, and body size on mating effort and mating success in the sexually polymorphic poeciliid fish, Girardinus metallicus, whose males either sneak copulation (plain morph) or display to females (black morph). We found evidence that focal fish (black morph male and female) recognized the audiences as conspecifics with unique identities. We demonstrated that focal black morph males had lower mating success when observed by a plain morph audience compared to a black morph audience. This may be attributed to changes in male mating effort and/or female response to courtship. We also found that males increased mating effort, and had higher mating success, the larger the audience male was than the focal male, and that males increased mating effort the larger the focal female was than the audience female. This is the first demonstration, to our knowledge, of audience effects in response to audience morph in a sexually polymorphic species, and has bearing on the impact of the social environment on mating behavior plasticity in general.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhgx
Description of the data and file structure
Description of the data and file structure
These data were collected for an experimental study examining audience effects in the polymorphic species, Girardinus metallicus. We examined the effects of conspecific audience morph, sex, and body size on mating effort and mating success in G. metallicus.
1. Title of Dataset: Audience Effects in a sexually polymorphic species: audience morph generates plasticity in mating behavior
2. Author Information
A. Principal Investigator Contact Information
Name: Gita R. Kolluru
Institution: California Polytechnic State University
Address: San Luis Obispo, CA USA
Email: gkolluru@calpoly.edu (opens in new window)
3. Date of data collection: 2019-2020
4. Geographic location of data collection: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA USA
Files and variables
Files and variables
File: Main_dataset_audience_effects.csv
Description: Data collected where black morph male mating effort and success were measured in the presence of four conspecific audience treatments.
Variables
- Focal Female ID: unique identifier for each focal female tested
- Focal Male ID: unique identifier for each male tested
- Audience Fish ID: unique identifier for each audience fish tested
- Audience Treatment: the identity of the audience fish being presented
- Focal Female Standard Length (mm): length of the focal female from tip of snout to caudal peduncle
- Focal Male Standard Length (mm): length of the focal male from tip of snout to caudal peduncle
- Audience Fish Standard Length (mm): length of the audience fish from tip of snout to caudal peduncle
- Treatment Order: referring to whether this audience treatment was presented to the focal pair first, second, third, or fourth out of four audience treatments per experimental trial
- Number of Days Isolated: number of days for which the focal male was isolated from other fish prior to experimentation. Focal females were isolated for one day fewer than the focal males with which they were paired.
- Mating Display Duration (s): total time per treatment that the focal male spent performing a mating display to the focal female.
- Copulation Attempts With Contact: Number of copulation attempts the focal made to the focal female that made observable physical contact with her genital opening.
- Copulation Attempts Without Contact: Number of copulation attempts the focal made to the focal female that did NOT make observable physical contact with her genital opening.
File: Focal_response_to_audience.csv
Description: Data collected from video recordings of the experimental trials in which focal male and female behavior towards the audience fish was quantified.
Variables
- Pair ID: unique identifier for each focal pair of fish tested
- Focal Fish ID: unique identifier for each focal fish tested
- Focal Fish Sex: the sex of the focal fish tested
- Audience Treatment: the identity of the audience fish being presented
- Focal Fish Standard Length: length in millimeters of the focal fish from tip of snout to caudal peduncle
- Number of Days Isolated: number of days for which the focal male was isolated from other fish prior to experimentation. Focal females were isolated for one day fewer than the focal males with which they were paired.
- Pecks at Audience: the number of pecks the focal fish tested made at the tube containing the audience fish directly adjacent to the audience fish’s location in the tube
- Approaches Audience: the number of times the focal fish swam toward the audience fish’s location within the tube
Code/software
All code used for analysis and figure creation is included within the R Markdown document "Audience_Effects_Analysis___Figures_-_Animal_Behaviour.Rmd". This code was created and run in R version 4.4.1 (2024-06-14 ucrt) -- "Race for Your Life" and RStudio version 2024.09.01, Build 394 - "Cranberry Hibiscus." The author recommends creating an RStudio Project file containing the Markdown and data files to ensure that code runs properly.