alpine newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris) Figure 1. Comparison of natural and experimental mating behavior.
(A) Female natural mating behavior: the female follows the tail-waving male, touches the male's tail to stimulate spermatophore deposition, and uses tail-waving to encourage a male to continue courtship (see Materials and methods). (B) Equivalent female behavior in a two-female experiment: after addition of male courtship water, one female follows the other one, or both females try to follow each other; the following female regularly touches the tail of the other one; a female uses tail-waving in trying to encourage the other female.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056538.g001
Date 11 March 2013, 02:12:58
Source Dag Treer , Ines Van Bocxlaer , Severine Matthijs, Dimitri Du Four, Sunita Janssenswillen, Bert Willaert, Franky Bossuyt (2013) Love Is Blind: Indiscriminate Female Mating Responses to Male Courtship Pheromones in Newts (Salamandridae). PLoS ONE 8(2): e56538. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056538
Author Dag Treer , Ines Van Bocxlaer , Severine Matthijs, Dimitri Du Four, Sunita Janssenswillen, Bert Willaert, Franky Bossuyt
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comparison_of_natural_and_experimental_mating_behavior_in_Ichthyosaura_alpestris_-_journal.pone.0056538.g001.png
The alpine newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris) is a newt of the family Salamandridae. It was formerly known as Triturus alpestris and Mesotriton alpestris. Alpine newts were originally confined to Central Europe and mountainous Southern Europe, as well as having isolated populations on the northern Iberian Peninsula and in Italy.