Meeting Abstract
Color polymorphism is often associated with variation in ecological and behavioral traits which may affect individual fitness. For traits involved in mate acquisition, this association could promote non-random mating and isolation among morphs. The redbacked salamander (Plethodon cinereus) exhibits a color polymorphism that involves two discrete dorsal-pattern morphs, striped and unstriped. Both morphs co-occur across much of the species’ range, and several studies have revealed ecological and behavioral differences between morphs. Additionally, recent studies support that male and female P. cinereus associate assortatively by color, suggesting that they may also mate nonrandomly. However, the mechanisms contributing to this behavior remain unclear. Although many studies focus on female mate choice, male mate choice may be a more appropriate candidate for driving assortative mating in this species, particularly because males of this species display a swollen vomeronasal organ during the breeding season and striped males tend to associate with large, striped females. Here we sought to determine 1) whether males preferentially associate with females with respect to color, body size, or both, during the breeding season and 2) whether female traits are evaluated via visual or chemical cues. To investigate these questions, we conducted two experiments which examined striped male behavior toward olfactory and visual cues of striped and unstriped females. We used a Bradley-Terry tournament-style model to reveal that female morph and body size predict male mate-preference. These results provide evidence for a role of assortative male preference in the non-random mating associations observed in this population of Plethodon cinereus.
