Part 10: Sexual Dimorphism in Female Pipefish

 Module 10: Sexual Selection 

How is it possible for female pipefish (Microphis deocata) to court a male pipefish when is often the opposite?

Figure 1: Female pipefish (Microphis deocata) [1]

In class we learned that sexual selection explains sex differences so this evolutionary force must act differently in each sex. Often males tend to court a female because typically females are able to be choosy when selecting their mates.

My hypothesis:  Sexual Dimorphism in female pipefish demonstrates that low variation in fitness and weak sexual selection is found in males leading to female pipefish to compete by advertising for mates as they now get chosen due to intersexual selection. 

In the family of Syngnathidae, including pipefishes, have male pregnancy. This predisposes males to limit female reproductive success leading sexual selection to act more strongly on females with leads to female-female competition and male choice (reversed sex role) in pipefish. (Rosenquivist et al.)

Resource: 

[1] www.bee-point.de 

[2] Rosenqvist, G. and Berglund, A. (2011), Sexual signals and mating patterns in Syngnathidae. Journal of Fish Biology, 78: 1647-1661. https://doi-org.er.lib.k-state.edu/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2011.02972.x