Sexual signals

Female Coloration and Mutual Sexual Signaling in Northern Cardinals.501... 

FEMALE COLORATION AND MUTUAL SEXUAL SIGNALING IN NORTHERN CARDINALS... 

Alonso-Alvarez, C., Bertrand, S., Devevey, G., Gaillard, M., Prost, J., Faivre, B., and Sorci, G. 2004. An experimental test of the dose-dependent effect of carotenoids and immune activation on sexual signals and antioxidant activity. Am. Nat. 164 651-659. 

Bias, J., Perez-Rodriguez, L., Bortolotti, G. R., Vinuela, J., and Marchant, T. A. 2006. Testosterone increases bioavailability of carotenoids Insights into the honesty of sexual signaling. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 103 18633-18637. 

Olson, V. A. and Owens, I. P. F. 1998. Costly sexual signals Are carotenoids rare, risky or required Trends Ecol. Evol. 13 510-514. 

Peters, A. 2007. Testosterone and carotenoids An integrated view of trade-offs between immunity and sexual signaling. BioEssays 29 427 -30. 

The predators discussed up to this point search for prey by using their ability to perceive certain chemical clues. Some unusual predators have evolved the ability to attract their prey with scents that mimic the odor of a valuable resource (see reviews of chemical mimicry in refs. 9 and 39). Several groups of spiders lure male insect prey with scents that mimic the sex pheromone scents of females of the prey species (see reviews in refs. 9,13,40, and 41). To the best of our knowledge, these spiders are the only predators that mimic sex pheromones. However, the spiders share some similarities with the diverse orchids which mimic insect sex pheromones to lure pollinators (9, 42, 43) and with the predatory fireflies, which practice elaborate mimicry of visual sexual signals to lure their prey heterospecific male fireflies (44). 

Chemical cues are important to advertise one s sex and to attract the opposite sex as the first step in sexual behavior. Other functions of sexual signals are to signal current sexual status and to alter the behavior of the potential partner(s) via courtship or scent marking to facilitate mating. Typically, the odor of the opposite sex is attractive, at least in the breeding season. (Priming pheromones are covered separately in Chapter 8.)... 

Predator-mediated stabilizing selection on sexual signals has long been a major theme of animal behavior research (Endler, 1987 Ryan, 1990 Zuk et al., 1998),... 

Kim TW, Christy JH, Choe JC (2007) A preference for a sexual signal keeps females safe. PLoS ONE 2(5) e422... 

How Stable Are Hormonal Pheromone Systems Which Employ Specialized Signals Because of the high level of co-evolution and specialization associated with the development of sexual signals, we believe that intrinsic factors promote elaboration of pheromonal complexity, but also make communication systems relatively immune to fundamental change. Change is more likely to result from extrinsic factors as discussed below (Section 5.4). 

Verrell, P.A. 1991. Illegitimate exploitation of sexual signaling system and the origin of species. Eth. Ecol. EvoL 3, 273-283. 

These experiments demonstrate that female roughskin newts produce a chemical sexual signal that is capable of stimulating amplectic clasping in males. This stereotypical courtship response to a chemical signal is unique in comparison with the behavioral responses to chemical signals that have been described in other urodele amphibians. Chemi-... 

Lloyd, J. E. (1980) Male Photuris fireflies mimic sexual signals of their females prey. Science, 210, 669-71. 

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