<p>Female reproductive decisions have been suggested to be highly influenced by mate quality. I have studied whether offspring quality may be adjusted by females to match the attractiveness of males and how strong control females have over their reproductive investment focusing on egg size. This was done in the Banggai cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni), a sex-role reversed obligate paternal mouthbrooder where males invest heavily into reproduction. As this species is suitable for both laboratory experiments and field studies it is an ideal candidate for the study of reproductive investment. </p><p>Mating was size-assortative and both males and females benefited from pairing with large partners. However, male size determined the reproductive output of a pair. Females courted large males more intensively and produced larger, but not fewer eggs when mated to large males as compared to small males. Further, this matching of egg size to mate attractiveness may be fast. Female courtship behaviours contained honest information regarding both clutch weight and egg maturity, traits that may be highly important for male mate choice. Surprisingly, males played an important part in territory defence suggesting relatively equal sex-roles in this species. Also, this species showed stable group structures which may be important for the evolution of female plasticity in reproductive investment due to high variance in quality of available mates. </p><p>This thesis suggest that females have a remarkable control over their reproductive investments and that male quality may be highly influential on reproductive decisions regarding offspring quality. Furthermore, it suggest that sexual selection may have strong effects on the evolution of egg size and parental care on a whole.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:uu-3562 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Kolm, Niclas |
| Publisher | Uppsala University, Animal Ecology, Uppsala : Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary, text |
| Relation | Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology, 1104-232X ; 882 |
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