O’STEEN, S.*; EBY, S.L.; BUNCE, J.A.: Sex and speed: do courtship locomotor skills predict skills when escaping predators?

The indicator theory of sexual selection suggests that mating displays can provide honest signals of good genes or condition. Locomotor performance is a good candidate for such a signal, as many mating displays include rapid locomotion, and physiological requirements for top performance may preclude dishonest signals. The kinematics of mating displays are little studied, and we use high-speed video to quantify locomotor performance of male guppies, Poecilia reticulata, during three events: (1) mating displays, (2) traditionally measured fast starts, and (3) staged encounters with a natural predator, the pike cichlid Crenicichla alta. Fast start swimming occurs during each of these events, and we record maximum linear and angular velocities and travel distances for all fast swims. We also record kinematic and behavioral variables unique to each of the three events. We use these data to test the prediction that swimming velocities during mating displays will be positively correlated with velocities during c-starts or escapes from Crenicichla, consistent with the hypothesis that display locomotion honestly indicates genetics or condition. We additionally conduct a survival analysis of variables from all three events, to test the specific prediction that components of display performance can predict survival ability of male guppies. Lastly, we examine the possibility that these estimates of the indicator value of displays may differ between guppy populations from different predation environments.