Pre- and post-copulatory sexual selection in the least killifish, Heterandria formosa Outi Ala-Honkola Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences Faculty of Biosciences University of Helsinki Finland Academic dissertation To be presented for public examination with the permission of the Faculty of Biosciences of the University of Helsinki in the Auditorium 2041 of Biocenter 2, Viikinkaari 5, on October 30th at 12 o’clock noon. Helsinki 2009 Supervisor: Prof. Kai Lindström, Åbo Akademi University, Finland Pre-examiners: Prof. Arja Kaitala, University of Oulu, Finland Dr. Jonathan Evans, University of Western Australia, Australia Opponent: Dr. Tommaso Pizzari, University of Oxford, United Kingdom Custos: Prof. Liselotte Sundström, University of Helsinki, Finland Author’s address: Outi Ala-Honkola Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences P.O.Box 65 (Viikinkaari 1) FI-00014 University of Helsinki Finland e-mail:
[email protected] ISBN 978-952-92-6211-3 (paperback) ISBN 978-952-10-5785-4 (pdf) http://ethesis.helsinki.fi Yliopistopaino Helsinki 2009 Typically, the scientific paper or monograph presents an immaculate appearance, which reproduces little or nothing of the intuitive leaps, false starts, mistakes, loose ends, and happy accidents that actually cluttered up the inquiry. (Merton, 1968) Contents Summary .............................................................................................................. 7 1. Introduction .................................................................................................