Exposure to pesticides impairs the expression of fish ornaments reducing the availability of attractive males

Abstract

Ornament magnitude often reflects a local balance between sexual selection and other sources of natural selection opposing their elaboration. Human activity may disrupt this balance if it modifies the costs of producing, maintaining or displaying the ornaments. When costs are increased, a shortage of acceptable partners may ensue, with consequences commensurate with how stringent (and effective) the process of mate choice is. Here, we show that the expression of ornaments in the viviparous amarillo fish ( Girardinichthys multiradiatus ) is influenced by embryonic exposure to low concentrations of an organophosphorus insecticide. Male ornamental fin size, dimorphic yellow coloration and display rates were all compromised in exposed fish, but unaffected in their paternal half-sibling controls and in their sisters (morphology and colour). Exposure resulted in smaller fish of both sexes, thus the differential effect by sex was restricted to attributes such as fin size only above the naturally selected magnitude shown by females. Father phenotype predicted offspring morphology of controls, but not of exposed males, which were discriminated against by both control and exposed females. Since stringent female mate choice can result in females refusing to mate with suboptimal mates, this sub-lethal developmental effect can reduce the effective population size of amarillo fish populations.