Female ornamentation and the fecundity trade-off in a sex-role reversed pipefish

Abstract

Sexual ornaments found only in females are a rare occurrence in nature. One explanation for this is that female ornaments are costly to produce and maintain and, therefore, females must trade-off resources related to reproduction to promote ornament expression. Here, we investigate whether a trade-off exists between female ornamentation and fecundity in the sex-role reversed, wide-bodied pipefish, Stigmatopora nigra. We measured two components of the disk-shaped, ventral-striped female ornament, body width, and stripe thickness. After controlling for the influence of body size, we found no evidence of a cost of belly width or stripe thickness on female fecundity. Rather, females that have la..