Guppy love

Why female guppies like males with orange spots

source: New Scientist March 23 2002 p27

A team from the University of Toronto, Canada, led by Helen Rodd, has carried out research on why female guppies prefer males with orange spots. They used plastic disks of different colours to test the preferences of wild guppies, both females and males. They found that orange was the favourite colour of both sexes. This could be because cabrehash fruit is a favourite food of guppies, and the fruit is orange, Rodd thinks. The evolution of male guppies may have been affected by this preference, she believes.
FI,BT