Evolution of alternative reproductive strategies: frequency-dependent sexual selection in male bluegill sunfish

Abstract

This study provides empirical evidence in a wild population for frequency-dependent sexual selection between alternative male reproductive strategies. The bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) has two male reproductive strategies, cuckolder or parental, used by different males to compete in fertilizing the same eggs. As the density of cuckolders in colonies of parental males increases, the average mating success of cuckolders initially peaks but then declines. The cuckolder density at which their success peaks is determined by ecological characteristics of each colony. A theoretical analysis assuming random and omniscient cuckolder distributions among ecologically different colonies shows that cuckolders will fertilize decreasing proportions of eggs, relative to parental males, as cuckolders increase in frequency in the population. This supports evolutionary models that assume negative frequency-dependent selection between the competing strategies. Cuckolder and parental strategies may therefore have evolved as an Evolutionarily Stable State (ESST).