Sexual selection on body size, genitals and heterozygosity: effects of demography and habitat complexity

Environmental variation can maintain genetic variation in sexually selected traits if it affects the strength of directional selection. Specifically, environmental variation in sex-specific mortality will change the operational sex ratio (OSR), which predicts the intensity of mating competition. How the OSR affects selection for specific male traits is poorly understood; and it is unknown how often sexual selection is affected by interactions between the OSR and environmental factors that alter social variables such as mate encounter rates. Here, we experimentally manipulated the OSR and habitat complexity and quantified sexual selection on male mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki). In G. holbrooki there is high within-population variation in male size, which may exist because of a tradeoff between the ability to sneak copulate (favouring small males) and monopolize females (favouring large males). The success of each tactic is predicted to depend on the OSR, encounter rates and the ability to stealthily approach conspecifics. We show that, despite greater sharing of paternity under a male-biased OSR, neither the opportunity for selection, nor selection on male traits was affected by the OSR or habitat complexity. Instead, sexual selection consistently favored smaller males with high genetic heterozygosity (using >3000 SNP markers), and a relatively long gonopodium (intromittent organ).