The mating system of eastern mosquito fish (Gambusia holbrooki) is dominated by male sexual coercion, where all matings are forced and females never appear to cooperate and actively avoid all attempts. Previous research has shown that male G. holbrooki offer a model system for examining the benefits of reversible thermal acclimation for reproductive success, but examining the benefits to female...

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are chemicals that negatively impact endocrine system function, with effluent from paper mills one example of this class of chemicals. In Florida, female Eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) have been observed with male secondary sexual characteristics at three paper mill-impacted sites, indicative of EDC exposure, and are still found at one site on th...

—Lampropeltis getula is a species of conservation concern in several parts of its wide geographic range. I describe habitat use and movement patterns of L. getula holbrooki in an agricultural landscape, a portion of which has been brought out of agriculture and reforested. Both sexes strongly preferred vegetated shrubby levee habitats, and avoided active agricultural fields. There was no eviden...

The speckled kingsnake, Lampropeltis holbrooki Stejneger (=L. getula holbrooki) is a medium sized colubrid that ranges from southern Iowa south through to the Gulf of Mexico (Conant and Collins 1998). In Arkansas, L. holbrooki can be found statewide where it inhabits forested woodlands and rocky hillsides in the Interior Highlands (Ozark and Ouachita mountains) to floodplains and swampy wetland...

Using larval Cx. annulirostris mosquitoes, this study compared the predation rate of Pseudomugil signifer and Gambusia holbrooki for four larval instars, three prey densities, and three vegetation densities. There was no significant difference in the quantity of first, second, and third instar larvae consumed by the two fish species after 24 h. There was a significant negative relationship betw...

The dynamics of mitochondrial and multilocus nuclear genotypic frequencies were monitored for 2 yr in experimental populations established with equal numbers of two poeciliid fishes (Gambusia affinis and Gambusia holbrooki) that hybridize naturally in the southeastern United States. In replicated "small-pool" populations (experiment I), 1018 sampled individuals at six time periods revealed an i...

The existence of individual variation in males' motivation to mate remains a conundrum as directional selection should favour high mating frequencies. Balancing selection resulting from (context-dependent) female mate choice could contribute to the maintenance of this behavioural polymorphism. In dichotomous choice tests, mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) females preferred virtual males showing...