Journal
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR
Volume 121, Issue -, Pages 163-174Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.08.022
Keywords
Drosophila melanogaster; mate choice; observational learning; personal information; social information; social learning
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Funding
- French Laboratory of Excellence project 'TULIP' [ANR-10-LABX-41, ANR-11-IDEX-0002-02]
- IDEX of the Universite Federale de Toulouse [ANR-11-IDEX-0002-02]
- Soc-H2 ANR project [ANR-13-BSV7-0007-01]
- CNRS
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Mate choice can strongly affect fitness in sexually reproducing organisms. A form of mate choice is mate copying, in which individuals use information about potential mates by copying the mate choice of other individuals. While many studies have documented mate copying, little is known about the effect of environmental conditions on this behaviour. Here, we report the first evidence that Drosophila melanogaster females can acquire a sexual preference for one male characteristic after witnessing a single mate choice event (i.e. speed learning). We also found that mate copying was correlated with air pressure and air pressure changes, so that females copied far more when air pressure was high and increasing, i.e. in good and improving weather conditions. These results reveal a quick social observational learning and highlight the potential importance of meteorological conditions for mate copying, a trait potentially driving reproductive isolation. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
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