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Science 5 August 1983:
Vol. 221. no. 4610, pp. 574 - 575
DOI: 10.1126/science.221.4610.574
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Articles

Sex Change in a Coral-Reef Fish: Dependence of Stimulation and Inhibition on Relative Size

ROBERT M. ROSS 1, GEORGE S. LOSEY 1, and MILTON DIAMOND 2

1 Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, P. O. Box 1346, Kaneohe, Hawaii 96744
2 Department of Anatomy and Reproductive Biology, University of Hawaii School of Medicine, Honolulu 96822

The removal of a single dominant individual has been shown to trigger a sex change in some coral-reeffish. In the saddleback wrasse (Thalassoma duperrey), however, female-to-male sex change requires visual stimulation from smaller conspecifics. This change is not dependent on the sex or color of the stimulus fish and can be inhibited by larger conspecifics. On the reef, a female probably changes sex when the relative numbers of larger and smaller conspecifics change within her home range.

Submitted on January 31, 1983


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Sex Reversal in Pairs of Lythrypnus dalli: Behavioral and Morphological Changes.
E. W. Rodgers, S. Drane, and M. S. Grober (2005)
Biol. Bull. 208, 120-126
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Testing a new version of the size-advantage hypothesis for sex change: sperm competition and size-skew effects in the bucktooth parrotfish, Sparisoma radians.
R. C. Munoz and R. R. Warner (2004)
Behav. Ecol. 15, 129-136
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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