Toxic Substances Make Males Less Attractive To The Opposite Sex

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 26 Mar 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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Male Amarillo fish from Mexico who are exposed to toxic substances during early development are less attractive to females says research published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The researchers from the University of Mexico found that male Amarillo's, who had been exposed to small concentrations of the insecticide Methyl-parathion, had less energy, small dull fins and were rejected by females.

Like humans, mothers can pass toxins to their unborn embryos if they are exposed to dangerous pollutants during pregnancy. As the large, colourful fins take a lot of energy to grow, this exposure to chemicals impacts on the male's ability to grow fins that are attractive to females. If they can't grow large, colourful fins it therefore makes them less appealing to the opposite sex and as female fish are very fussy in their mate choice it may reduce the population size of Amarillo fish.

Royal Society