Female mate assessment and choice behavior affect the frequency of alternative male mating tactics

Explanations for the existence of alternative male mating tacticsfocus primarily on male–male competition. Mating systems,however, are composed of interactions both within and betweenthe sexes, and the role of female behavior in shaping male matingtactics should not be overlooked. By using a dynamic state variablegame model, I examine how female mate assessment and choicebehavior affect the frequency of alternative male mating tactics.When females can accurately assess the quality of males, onlymales with high quality are likely to be chosen as mates, andthus, lower-quality males gain little fitness from courtingfemales. This leads lower-quality males to switch to an alternativemating tactic that attempts to circumvent female mate choice.In contrast, if the abilities of females to accurately assessmales are constrained by assessment costs, imperfect information,or time constraints, or if the pool of available males is smaller,then lower-quality males are increasingly chosen as mates andthey less often use alternative mating tactics. Thus, femalebehavior shapes the frequency of alternative male mating tactics.A consequence of this game between the sexes is that male behavior(i.e., increased alternative mating tactics) decreases the benefitsfemales might otherwise gain from lower assessment costs, clearersignals of male quality, more time to choose a male, and moremales from which to choose a mate.