The ‘Woman in Red’ effect: pipefish males curb pregnancies at the sight of an attractive female
- 22 August 2018
- journal article
- research article
- Published by The Royal Society in Proceedings. Biological sciences
- Vol. 285 (1885), 20181335
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.1335
Abstract
In an old Gene Wilder movie, an attractive woman dressed in red devastated a man's current relationship. We have found a similar ‘Woman in Red’ effect in pipefish, a group of fish where pregnancy occurs in males. We tested for the existence of pregnancy blocks in pregnant male black-striped pipefish (Syngnathus abaster). We allowed pregnant males to see females that were larger and even more attractive than their original high-quality mates and monitored the survival and growth of developing offspring. After exposure to these extremely attractive females, males produced smaller offspring in more heterogeneous broods and showed a higher rate of spontaneous offspring abortion. Although we did not observe a full pregnancy block, our results show that males are able to reduce investment in current broods when faced with prospects of a more successful future reproduction with a potentially better mate. This ‘Woman in Red’ life-history trade-off between present and future reproduction has similarities to the Bruce effect, and our study represents, to our knowledge, the first documentation of such a phenomenon outside mammals.Funding Information
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BD/87616/2012, SFRH/BPD/103829/2014)
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