Trinidadian guppies have become one of the classic examples of female choice. This chapter begins by summarizing the reproductive biology of male and female fish. Male tactics and female choice are reviewed briefly, and the chapter continues the approach adopted throughout the book by developing themes initiated by the early workers (including Winge, Clark & Aronson, Baerends, Haskins, Bateman, and Liley) and showing how recent investigations have shed light on the important questions they raised. These topics include causes and consequences of population differences in reproductive behaviour; variance in mating success between the sexes; sperm competition/cryptic female choice; and sexual selection and the maintenance of variation within and between populations.
Keywords: reproductive biology, female choice, male choice, mate choice, risk, multiple mating, cryptic choice, good genes