Female cichlid fish living in African great lakes are known to have sensory systems that are adapted to ambient light environments. These sensory system adaptations are hypothesized to have influenced the evolution of the diverse male nuptial coloration. In rock-dwelling Lake Malawi mbuna cichlids, however, the extent to which ambient light environments influence female sensory systems and potentially associated male nuptial coloration remains unknown. Yet, the ubiquitous blue flank coloration and UV reflection of male mbuna cichlids suggests the potential impacts of the blue-shifted ambient light environment on these cichlid’s visual perception and male nuptial coloration in the shallow water depth in Lake Malawi. In the present study, we explored whether and how the sensory bias of females influences intersexual communication in the mbuna cichlid, Metriaclima zebra. A series of choice experiments in various light environments showed that M. zebra females (i) have a preference for the blue-shifted light environment, (ii) prefer to interact with males in blue-shifted light environments, (iii) do not show a preference between dominant and subordinate males in full-spectrum, long-wavelength filtered, and short-wavelength filtered light environments, and (iv) show a ‘reversed’ preference for subordinate males in the UV-filtered light environment. These results suggest that the visual perception of M. zebra females may be biased to the ambient light spectra in their natural habitat by local adaptation and that this sensory bias may influence the evolution of blue and UV reflective patterns in male nuptial coloration.

中文翻译：

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环境水色对马拉维湖慈鲷 Metriaclima 斑马栖息地和同种选择的影响

众所周知，生活在非洲大湖中的雌性丽鱼科鱼具有适应周围光环境的感觉系统。这些感觉系统的适应被假设影响了不同男性婚礼色彩的演变。然而，在岩栖的马拉维湖 mbuna 慈鲷中，环境光环境对雌性感官系统的影响程度以及可能相关的雄性婚礼着色仍然未知。然而，雄性 mbuna 慈鲷无处不在的蓝色侧面着色和紫外线反射表明，蓝移环境光环境对这些慈鲷的视觉感知和马拉维湖浅水深处的雄性婚礼着色的潜在影响。在目前的研究中，我们探讨了雌性的感官偏见是否以及如何影响 mbuna 慈鲷、Metriaclima 斑马的两性交流。在各种光环境下的一系列选择实验表明，M. zebra 雌性 (i) 对蓝移光环境有偏好，(ii) 更喜欢在蓝移光环境中与雄性互动，(iii) 不表现在全光谱、长波长过滤和短波长过滤光环境中，优势雄性和从属雄性之间的偏好，以及 (iv) 在紫外线过滤光环境中显示出对从属雄性的“反向”偏好。这些结果表明 M.