When it comes to mating, guppies treasure their ugly friends - because they look so good by comparison.
An article published Wednesday by Britain's Royal Society says that male guppies prefer to associate with their drab-colored counterparts when females are around.
"Males actively choose the social context that maximizes their relative attractiveness," the article said. Or, as lead author Clelia Gasparini put it, "If you are surrounded by ugly friends, you look better."
Gasparini and her colleagues at Italy's University of Padua built their theory on a kind of guppy dating game. An aquarium was set up with one female in partition on either end. Guppy bachelorette No. 1 had two attractive, brightly-colored males placed on either side of her. Guppy bachelorette No. 2 was stuck with uglier, drab-colored fish.
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