Abstract
Alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) evolve when there is strong intra-sexual competition between conspecifics for access to mates. Typically, larger “bourgeois” males reproduce by securing the access to reproductive resources while smaller “parasitic” males reproduce by stealing fertilizations from larger males. A number of factors can influence the reproductive success of each tactic, including intrinsic (e.g. size) and extrinsic (e.g. tactic relative frequency) variables. An example where plastic ARTs occur is the peacock blenny Salaria pavo, with large males reproducing by defending nests and attracting females (bourgeois tactic) and small males reproducing by achieving sneaked fertilizations (parasitic tactic). In this study, we conducted field observations on individually tagged animals to determine their social network and collected eggs from 11 nests to determine the fertilization success of each male tactic. Paternity estimates for 550 offspring indicated an average fertilization success for nest-holder males of 95%. Nest-holder male morphological traits and social network parameters were tested as predictors of fertilization success, but only the number of sneakers present in the nest-holder’s social networks was found to be a predictor of paternity loss. Although male morphological traits had been previously found to be strongly correlated with reproductive success of nest-holder males, as measured by the number of eggs collected in the male’s nest, no correlation was found between any of the measured morphological traits and fertilization success for these males. The results suggest a stronger influence of the social environment than of morphological variables in the proportion of lost fertilizations by nest-holder males of this species.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank António José dos Santos and João Daniel from the Developmental Psychology Unit at ISPA-Instituto Universitário for their help with the social network analysis; the late Vitor Almada and Joana Robalo for discussions on paternity estimate approaches in this species; and the editor, Peter K. McGregor, and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments that helped to improve the manuscript. This study was supported by the research grant EXCL/BIA-ANM/0549/2012 from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and by grant no. 012/2012/A1 from the Macao Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT). During the writing of this manuscript, S.D.C. was being supported by an FCT grant (SFRH/BD/89072/2012).
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Cardoso, S.D., Faustino, A.I., Costa, S.S. et al. Social network predicts loss of fertilizations in nesting males of a fish with alternative reproductive tactics. acta ethol 20, 59–68 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-016-0249-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-016-0249-9