Guppy Love! How Color Vibrancy of Guppies Affects Sexual Selection Among Male Guppies (Poecilia reticulata).

Abstract

Evolution is involved in the formation of all organisms on earth, from the largest animals such as whale sharks, to some of the smallest, such as tiny insects. One of the forces behind evolution is mate selection, which can be influenced by a variety of factors depending on an organism’s species, for example, we will be looking at the effect that the color of a female guppy (Poeciliareticulata) has on the likelihood that a male will display mating with her. In our observation we focused on analyzing the results provided by previous groups on the sexual selection of male guppies by observing the amount of seconds spent and the behaviors displayed by male guppies when observed with female guppies of various colors. Our group referenced 30 separate and peer reviewed collections of data concerning the time spent by male guppies when confronted with females with different characteristics, which we analyzed using a Mann-Whitney U test. When we examined the results, our group found that our hypothesis was supported, and that male guppies are more attracted to female guppies that have a coloration that is associated with longer wavelengths, such as in our experiment: red. This could be due to the coloration of female guppies being an indicator of health and fitness, which will attract more male guppies.