Ecological speciation by sexual selection.

Quantitative genetic models are used to investigate a mechanism of speciation involving natural and sexual selection on a population with more than one ecological niche available. Female choice of mates, based on ecologically important characters, can initiate a sudden shift into a new niche. Whether males alone or both sexes make the transition depends strongly on the genetic correlation between homologous male and female characters. This mode of speciation rapidly produces premating and postmating isolating barriers, as well as ecological separation, between populations that can then coexist in the same area as distinct species.