The information tranfered among individual animals can be shared by a network, which is consisted of the sender, the receiver, and the extra bystander of the communication signals. The bystanders can read and use the signal that is not sent directly to them and make use of it to interfere with the sender and the receiver, which is known as "audience effects" in the research area of animal behaviors. The processes of mate choice and mating of animals occur mainly in the network that is composed of the particular species. Increasing evidence show that the audience effects play an important role in regulating mating preference and mating strategy, resulting in changes in species evolution. Here, we review the role of audience effects on animal mate choice and evolution by clarifying the definition and functional explanations of audience effects, the factors contributing to audience effects, as well as the different impacts of audience effects on males and females. It would provide novel ideas to study the impacts of audience effects on mate choice and species evolution in the future.
动物借助于通讯信号传递信息,信息发送者、接收者和旁观者共同组成动物通讯的信息网络环境。旁观者能够“窃取”并利用未直接发送给它们的信号,其存在影响信息发送者和接收者的通讯行为,这种现象被称为“观众效应”。动物的配偶选择和交配过程多发生于由同种动物所组成的信息网络中。越来越多的证据表明,“观众效应”可影响动物个体的择偶偏好和交配决策,进而影响物种的进化。本文主要从“观众效应”的性别差异、影响因素、功能解释等方面综述了其对动物配偶选择的影响,为揭示“观众效应”对配偶选择的影响及其在物种进化过程中的作用提供了新的思路。.
Keywords: audience effects; behavior; evolution; mate choice; sperm competition.