摘要
The theory of ecological speciation suggests that assortative mating evolves most easily when mating preferences aredirectly linked to ecological traits that are subject to divergent selection. Sensory adaptation can play a major role in this process,because selective mating is often mediated by sexual signals: bright colours, complex song, pheromone blends and so on. Whendivergent sensory adaptation affects the perception of such signals, mating patterns may change as an immediate consequence.Alternatively, mating preferences can diverge as a result of indirect effects: assortative mating may be promoted by selectionagainst intermediate phenotypes that are maladapted to their (sensory) environment. For Lake Victoria cichlids, the visual environmentconstitutes an important selective force that is heterogeneous across geographical and water depth gradients. We investigatethe direct and indirect effects of this heterogeneity on the evolution of female preferences for alternative male nuptial colours(red and blue) in the genus Pundamilia. Here, we review the current evidence for divergent sensory drive in this system, extractgeneral principles, and discuss future perspectives [Current Zoology 56 (3): 285-299, 2010].
基金
funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
the Netherlands Foundation for Scientific Research (NWO-ALW and NWO-WOTRO)
