Selecting a good mate is a decision with importantfitness consequences.For this reason,mate choice has promotedthe evolution of sexual ornaments signaling the quality of an individual.In fossorial animals,inhabiting vi...Selecting a good mate is a decision with importantfitness consequences.For this reason,mate choice has promotedthe evolution of sexual ornaments signaling the quality of an individual.In fossorial animals,inhabiting visuallyrestricted underground environments,chemical senses should be very important for mate choice.We examinedwhether sexual chemical signals(substrate scent marks)produced by males of the Iberian worm lizard,Blanuscinereus,a strictly fossorial blind amphisbaenian,provide information to females on morphological traits andhealth state.We administered corticosterone(CORT)to males simulating a continuous stressor affecting theirhealth.Females preferred settling at sites scent-marked by males in comparison with similar sites with femalescent or unmarked sites,but the attractiveness of males’scent differed between individuals.Females preferredscent marks of larger/older males and with a higher immune response,while their body condition and CORTtreatment were unrelated to female preferences.Chemical analyses showed that proportions of some compounds inprecloacal secretions of males(used to produce scent marks)were correlated with the morphological(body size)and health state(immune response and body condition,but not CORT treatment)of these males.These resultssuggest that females may make site-selection decisions based on assessing the chemical characteristics of males’scent marks,which were reliably related to some of the traits of the male that produced the scent.Therefore,femalesmight use chemical senses to increase the opportunities tofind and mate with males of high quality,coping withthe restrictions of the subterranean environment.展开更多
基金supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia,Innovación y Universidades grant PGC2018-093592-B-I00(MCIU/AEI/FEDER,UE)by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación grant PID2021-122358NB-I00(MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and ERDF A way of making Europe).
文摘Selecting a good mate is a decision with importantfitness consequences.For this reason,mate choice has promotedthe evolution of sexual ornaments signaling the quality of an individual.In fossorial animals,inhabiting visuallyrestricted underground environments,chemical senses should be very important for mate choice.We examinedwhether sexual chemical signals(substrate scent marks)produced by males of the Iberian worm lizard,Blanuscinereus,a strictly fossorial blind amphisbaenian,provide information to females on morphological traits andhealth state.We administered corticosterone(CORT)to males simulating a continuous stressor affecting theirhealth.Females preferred settling at sites scent-marked by males in comparison with similar sites with femalescent or unmarked sites,but the attractiveness of males’scent differed between individuals.Females preferredscent marks of larger/older males and with a higher immune response,while their body condition and CORTtreatment were unrelated to female preferences.Chemical analyses showed that proportions of some compounds inprecloacal secretions of males(used to produce scent marks)were correlated with the morphological(body size)and health state(immune response and body condition,but not CORT treatment)of these males.These resultssuggest that females may make site-selection decisions based on assessing the chemical characteristics of males’scent marks,which were reliably related to some of the traits of the male that produced the scent.Therefore,femalesmight use chemical senses to increase the opportunities tofind and mate with males of high quality,coping withthe restrictions of the subterranean environment.
