title: Homosexual behaviour increases male attractiveness to females.
abstract: Male homosexual behaviour-although found in most extant clades across the Animal Kingdom-remains a conundrum, as same-sex mating should decrease male reproductive fitness. In most species, however, males that engage in same-sex sexual behaviour also mate with females, and in theory, same-sex mating could even increase male reproductive fitness if males improve their chances of future heterosexual mating. Females regularly use social information to choose a mate; e.g. male attractiveness increases after a male has interacted sexually with a female (mate choice copying). Here, we demonstrate that males of the tropical freshwater fish Poecilia mexicana increase their attractiveness to females not only by opposite-sex, but likewise, through same-sex interactions. Hence, direct benefits for males of exhibiting homosexual behaviour may help explain its occurrence and persistence in species in which females rely on mate choice copying as one component of mate quality assessment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main 60438, Germany. david.bierbach@gmx.de
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bierbach
authors.forename: Christian T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hornung
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Streit
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Plath
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D052586:Mating Preference, Animal; D011036:Poecilia / Q000502:physiology*; D012930:Social Dominance