Meeting Abstract
To understand the evolution of polymorphisms in females, many scientists have been interested in the “male mimicry hypothesis”. The evolutionary explanation for male mimicry by females often involves a reduction in sexual harassment, at the cost of higher testosterone levels and lower reproductive success in “male-like” females. Three primary dorsal patterns have been described in female brown anoles (Anolis sagrei), but some populations also include a “male-like” pattern. A recent study on female polymorphism in A. sagrei proposed that the presence of the male-like dorsal pattern could be maintained as a consequence of relaxed sexual harassment. We tested this hypothesis using two sets of analyses. First, we aimed to determine if female dorsal pattern was truly similar to male dorsal pattern using two different methods: 1) unbiased human vision with no or low previous knowledge of the existing classification, and 2) computer classification of dorsal patterns. Second, we then related the female dorsal patterns to body condition, dewlap size and coloration to support or discount the idea of “male-like” females being viewed as males in the wild. We also related female dorsal patterns to egg production as a metric of reproductive success. In accord with the “male-mimicry hypothesis” we predict male-like females to have larger and more colored dewlaps and lower fecundity than the other female morphs.
