Mimicry, Mate Choice, and the Sensory Trap Hypothesis

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Abstract
Sensory traps affect mate choice when male courtship signals mimic stimuli to which females respond in other contexts and elicit female behavior that increases male fertilization rates. Because of the supernormal stimulus effect, mimetic signals may become quantitatively exaggerated relative to model stimuli. Viability selection or a decrease in responsiveness to signals that are exaggerated beyond their peak supernormal effect may limit signal elaboration. Females always benefit by responding to models and they may often benefit by responding to mimetic courtship signals. If the response as a preference is costly, it may be maintained by frequent and strong selection for the response to the model. I review five examples of courtship that illustrate the kinds of studies that can provide evidence of sensory traps. The strategic designs of mimetic courtship signals arise not from selection of responses to them but from selection for responses to models. This results from deceit by mimicry and the evolution of sensory trap responses before the signals that elicit them as preferences.

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