DOI: 10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhgx
title: Data from: Audience effects in a sexually polymorphic species: Audience morph generates plasticity in mating behavior

description: A full understanding of mating behavior includes placing mating effort and
 mating success in the context of the social environment. Audience effects
 occur when individuals adjust their behavior in response to the presence
 of conspecifics, a form of plasticity in mating behavior generated by the
 social environment. Some species exhibit sexual polymorphism, such that
 one male morph courts females, whereas the other sneaks copulations
 without courting. Audience effects in such taxa have rarely been
 investigated. We examined the effects of conspecific audience morph, sex,
 and body size on mating effort and mating success in the sexually
 polymorphic poeciliid fish, Girardinus metallicus, whose males either
 sneak copulation (plain morph) or display to females (black morph). We
 found evidence that focal fish (black morph male and female) recognized
 the audiences as conspecifics with unique identities. We demonstrated that
 focal black morph males had lower mating success when observed by a plain
 morph audience compared to a black morph audience. This may be attributed
 to changes in male mating effort and/or female response to courtship. We
 also found that males increased mating effort, and had higher mating
 success, the larger the audience male was than the focal male, and that
 males increased mating effort the larger the focal female was than the
 audience female. This is the first demonstration, to our knowledge, of
 audience effects in response to audience morph in a sexually polymorphic
 species, and has bearing on the impact of the social environment on mating
 behavior plasticity in general.
description: # Data from: Audience effects in a sexually polymorphic species: Audience
 morph generates plasticity in mating behavior Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhgx](10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhgx) ## Description of the
 data and file structure **Description of the data and file structure**
 These data were collected for an experimental study examining audience
 effects in the polymorphic species, Girardinus metallicus. We examined the
 effects of conspecific audience morph, sex, and body size on mating effort
 and mating success in G. metallicus. 1\. Title of Dataset: Audience
 Effects in a sexually polymorphic species: audience morph generates
 plasticity in mating behavior 2\. Author Information A. Principal
 Investigator Contact Information Name: Gita R. Kolluru Institution:
 California Polytechnic State University Address: San Luis Obispo, CA USA
 Email: [gkolluru@calpoly.edu (opens in new
 window)](mailto:gkolluru@calpoly.edu) 3\. Date of data collection:
 2019-2020 4\. Geographic location of data collection: California
 Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA USA ### Files and
 variables **Files and variables** **File:
 Main_dataset_audience_effects.csv** **Description:** Data collected where
 black morph male mating effort and success were measured in the presence
 of four conspecific audience treatments. **Variables** * Focal Female ID:
 unique identifier for each focal female tested * Focal Male ID: unique
 identifier for each male tested * Audience Fish ID: unique identifier for
 each audience fish tested * Audience Treatment: the identity of the
 audience fish being presented * Focal Female Standard Length (mm): length
 of the focal female from tip of snout to caudal peduncle * Focal Male
 Standard Length (mm): length of the focal male from tip of snout to caudal
 peduncle * Audience Fish Standard Length (mm): length of the audience fish
 from tip of snout to caudal peduncle * Treatment Order: referring to
 whether this audience treatment was presented to the focal pair first,
 second, third, or fourth out of four audience treatments per experimental
 trial * Number of Days Isolated: number of days for which the focal male
 was isolated from other fish prior to experimentation. Focal females were
 isolated for one day fewer than the focal males with which they were
 paired. * Mating Display Duration (s): total time per treatment that the
 focal male spent performing a mating display to the focal female. *
 Copulation Attempts With Contact: Number of copulation attempts the focal
 made to the focal female that made observable physical contact with her
 genital opening. * Copulation Attempts Without Contact: Number of
 copulation attempts the focal made to the focal female that did NOT make
 observable physical contact with her genital opening. **File:
 Focal_response_to_audience.csv** **Description:** Data collected from
 video recordings of the experimental trials in which focal male and female
 behavior towards the audience fish was quantified. **Variables** * Pair
 ID: unique identifier for each focal pair of fish tested * Focal Fish ID:
 unique identifier for each focal fish tested * Focal Fish Sex: the sex of
 the focal fish tested * Audience Treatment: the identity of the audience
 fish being presented * Focal Fish Standard Length: length in millimeters
 of the focal fish from tip of snout to caudal peduncle * Number of Days
 Isolated: number of days for which the focal male was isolated from other
 fish prior to experimentation. Focal females were isolated for one day
 fewer than the focal males with which they were paired. * Pecks at
 Audience: the number of pecks the focal fish tested made at the tube
 containing the audience fish directly adjacent to the audience fish’s
 location in the tube * Approaches Audience: the number of times the focal
 fish swam toward the audience fish’s location within the tube ##
 Code/software All code used for analysis and figure creation is included
 within the R Markdown document
 "Audience_Effects_Analysis___Figures_-_Animal_Behaviour.Rmd".
 This code was created and run in R version 4.4.1 (2024-06-14 ucrt) --
 "Race for Your Life" and RStudio version 2024.09.01, Build 394 -
 "Cranberry Hibiscus." The author recommends creating an RStudio
 Project file containing the Markdown and data files to ensure that code
 runs properly.