The Effect of Female Appearance on Male Mating Behavior

Abstract

Male guppies are important to scientific research because, in spite of their promiscuous courtship behavior which seems to be determined purely by fitness, males still display some amount of choice in the selection of their mates. We tested male guppies against a control female model and an experimental smaller model in order to determine if the male would avoid mating with the less desirable female, since males seem to associate size with fecundity. We found that the males actually displayed courtship behavior towards the shallow bodied model and spent more time with the model over all. This information is contradictory to previous research and could be important for future research related to guppy courtship behavior.