Male fish in Mexico sports sexy 'moustache'

Male fish in Mexico sports sexy 'moustache'

By Matt Walker

Source: BBC News

6/28/2010

Male molly fish in Mexico wear a moustache that makes them appear more sexy to females.

Scientists were unsure why male Mexican mollies wear an extravagant moustache-like structure on their top lip.

Now a study has revealed that female fish find the moustache sexually attractive, and it is likely to be a sexually selected trait.

As well as being visually-attractive, the moustache may be used to rub the female fish's genitals, exciting them.

Details are published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

As their name suggests, Mexican mollies (Poecilia sphenops) live in Mexico, being a fairly common species that resides in a range of habitats from small rivers to creeks and lakes.

The fish has a complicated mating behaviour, with males fertilising females internally, rather than spreading sperm over externally laid eggs.

Sexy company

Not all males are equal, however.
Some possess a moustache-type structure growing from scales on their top lip.

Until now, its function has not been known as it has not been studied or described in any detail.

So zoologist Professor Ingo Schlupp of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, US and colleagues in the US and Germany decided to study it for the first time.

Mexican Molly

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