Is Color Wavelength of Poecilia reticulata and Sexual Selection Related?

Abstract

The purpose of this study was research for the Center for the Study of Sexual Selection in Fishes(CS^3F). The CS^3F is currently focused on sexual selection of Poecilia reticulata, which are part of the Trinidadian guppy species, and how it relates to their evolution. The question that we studied in this experiment was how color wavelengths of female guppies would affect the male guppies' sexual choices. Our hypothesis predicted that more reflective female guppies would attract more male subjects. The colors for female guppies were Warm Gray, Neon Orange, Neon Green, True Purple, and Sparkly Dark Blue. Warm Gray was our control color. In this experiment, previously collected data was used for data analysis. Throughout our experiment, we discovered that male guppies are attracted to True Purple female guppies the most. The True Purple colored guppies had the highest color wavelength. These results did not support our hypothesis, although the True Purple females reflected the highest wavelengths of light. We used a Kruskal-Wallis calculator for calculating our statistics. The calculator showed that the time each group of fish spent with each other had no effect on sexual selection. Results from this study showed that male guppies prefer female fishes that reflect a certain color wavelength, reflecting highest values between 500 and 620 nanometers.