title: The importance of novelty: male-female interactions among blue-black grassquits in captivity.
abstract: Mate choice is a primary mechanism driving the evolution of sexually selected traits such as elaborate displays and ornaments. In a majority of taxa studied to date, females are seen to actively sample and evaluate multiple males, presumably to optimize mating opportunities. During this process females may encounter males both familiar and novel, a distinction that might influence how mate choice proceeds. Using a socially monogamous passerine, the blue-black grassquit (Volatinia jacarina), we studied how females respond to novel versus familiar ("paired") males, and how encounters with novel males influence subsequent interactions with their paired males. Additionally, we measured the hormonal response of males after visualizing their paired females interacting with novel males. We found that females were attentive to novel males irrespective of these males' phenotypic attributes, suggesting that in these interactions novelty is highly relevant. After exposure to novel males, females tended to respond aggressively towards their paired males; by contrast, the behaviour of males towards their paired females did not change. Moreover, we did not detect any hormonal responses of males to viewing their paired females interacting with novel males. Together these results suggest that the distinction between familiarity and novelty may hold special relevance for females in mate choice, a finding that bears upon our understanding of the evolution of extra-pair paternity and reproductive behaviour.
authors.affiliation: PPG em Biologia Animal, Departamento de Zoologia - IB, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF 70910-900, Brazil. Electronic address: raphael.dias@uniceub.br.
authors.forename: Raphael I
authors.initials: RI
authors.lastname: Dias
authors.affiliation: Unidade de Investigação em Eco-Etologia, Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Portugal; Champalimaud Neuroscience Program, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras 2780-156, Portugal.
authors.forename: Rui F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Podos
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Zoologia - IB, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF 70910-900, Brazil.
authors.forename: Regina H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Macedo
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D049628:Body Size / Q000502:physiology; D003348:Cortisone / Q000097:blood; D004777:Environment; D005241:Feathers / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D052586:Mating Preference, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D010152:Pair Bond; D046109:Passeriformes / Q000502:physiology*; D010332:Paternal Behavior; D010641:Phenotype; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D013739:Testosterone / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D013739:Testosterone; D003348:Cortisone
keywords: Aggression; Mate choice; Mate sampling; Paternity; Volatinia jacarina