The evolution of ornaments as sexually selected signals is well understood in males, but female ornamentation remains understudied. Fairy wrens offer an excellent model system, given their complex social structure and mating systems, and the diversity of female ornamentation. We investigated whether early molt into ornamental breeding plumage plays an adaptive role in females of the monogamous purple-crowned fairy wren Malurus coronatus, the only fairy wren known to have female seasonal plumage. Using 6 years of monitoring, we found that the timing of female molt was similar to males, but there was no evidence for assortative mating. Like males (previous study), older and dominant individuals acquired their breeding plumage earlier; however, in contrast to males, early molt did not seem to be costly since unfavorable environmental conditions or previous reproductive effort did not delay molt. Early female molt was not associated with any indicator of reproductive quality nor did it attract additional offspring care by their partners. We also found no association between early molt and the likelihood of acquiring a dominant (breeding) position or with the presence or proximity to same-sex rivals. Our study results, which are similar to previous findings in conspecific males, suggest that directional selection for early molt might be relaxed in this species, in contrast to other genetically polygamous fairy wrens in which early molt predicts extrapair mating success in males. However, the finding that molt timing is status dependent raises the possibility that other attributes of the ornament may fulfill an adaptive function in females.

中文翻译：

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没有证据表明早期蜕皮对女性仙女into的繁殖羽毛具有适应性作用

在男性中，装饰物作为性选择信号的演变已广为人知，但对女性装饰物的研究仍很少。鉴于其复杂的社会结构和交配系统以及女性装饰的多样性，童话提供了一个出色的模型系统。我们调查了早期蜕皮进入观赏性繁殖羽毛是否对一夫一妻的紫色加冕仙女Malurus coronatus（唯一已知具有雌性季节性羽毛的仙女）的雌性具有适应性作用。通过6年的监测，我们发现雌性蜕皮的发生时间与雄性蜕变相似，但是没有证据表明它们可以进行交配。像雄性一样（先前的研究），年龄较大且占优势的个体较早地获得了繁殖羽。但是，与男性相比，早期的蜕皮似乎并不昂贵，因为不利的环境条件或先前的繁殖努力并未延迟蜕皮。早期雌性蜕皮没有任何生殖质量指标，也没有吸引伴侣的后代照顾。我们还发现，早期蜕皮与获得优势（育种）职位的可能性或与同性竞争对手的存在或接近之间没有关联。我们的研究结果与先前在同种雄性中的发现相似，表明与其他遗传上一夫多妻的童话w不同，早期蜕皮预测雄性成对配对成功，与此物种相比，早期蜕皮的方向选择可能会放宽。然而，