Effects of Developmental Environment on Signal-Preference Coupling in a Hawaiian Cricket

Abstract

Previous work has suggested that developmental temperature influences expression of the adult male calling song of the cricket, a sexually selected mate recognition signal. The role of developmental temperature in shaping female preference functions, and thus its influence on signal‐preference coupling has not been investigated. In this study, the effects of developmental temperature are examined in both males and females of the Hawaiian cricket, Laupala cerasina, to determine the degree of signal‐preference matching between male song and female preference due to developmental environment. We found that rearing females in different temperature environments affected adult female acoustic preference functions in the same direction as male calling song, thereby influencing variation in adult reproductive behavior in such a way that male and female components remain coordinated. However, we further demonstrate that for male song, the effect of the rearing environment is not permanent but appears only to exert influence for a period of days. This mid‐term temperature effect is distinct from the effect of short‐term ambient temperature, which influences song in a matter of minutes and has been well documented. Signal‐preference coordination, and sexual selection pressures due to mismatching within natural populations, likely will be influenced by nymphal developmental environments of males and females, as well as by adult singing and preference environments.

Divergence in the calling songs between sympatric and allopatric populations of the southern wood cricket Gryllus fultoni (Orthoptera: Gryllidae)

“…Clinal variation usually indicates that some environmental factors such as temperature, precipitation, or season length vary with latitude or longitude, and these factors, in turn, influence expression of calling songs in crickets. Recent findings that the expression of both male calling songs and female mate preferences depends on developmental temperature (Olvido & Moussear, 1995; Walker, 2000; Grace & Shaw, 2004) suggest the possibility of clinal effects on calling songs in our studies. Divergence in calling song characters may thus arise during development from different temperature regimes between areas of allopatry and sympatry.…”

“…When recorded at standard temperatures, males reared in high temperature regimes produced calling songs with higher chirp rates (CRs) and carrier frequencies in Allonemobius fasciatus (Olvido & Mousseau, 1995) and with higher pulse rates (PRs) in Gryllus rubens (Walker, 2000) than males reared in low temperature regimes. Grace & Shaw (2004) found that changes in male calling songs and female preference functions induced by developmental temperatures were matched in a Hawaiian cricket Laupala cerasina . That is, female crickets reared in warmer conditions preferred songs with faster PRs produced by males reared in warmer conditions.…”

Genomic linkage of male song and female acoustic preference QTL underlying a rapid species radiation

“…Acoustic communication in crickets shows widespread (i) behavioral coupling, where male and female traits are matched within species; (ii) temperature coupling, where cooler males produce slower songs that are preferred by cooler females (5); and (iii) developmental coupling where males reared at cool temperatures sing slower songs that are preferred by females reared at equally cooler temperatures (30)(31)(32). Several authors have hypothesized mechanisms for both the physiological and genetic bases of behavioral coupling (3,5,6,33).…”

Relative Effects of Juvenile and Adult Environmental Factors on Mate Attraction and Recognition in the Cricket,Allonemobius socius

“…A single degree of freedom in a repeated-measures ANOVA appears insufficient to detect relatively subtle adult phenotypic variation caused by variation in juvenile environment. It is also possible that any effect of juvenile environment may have “decayed” over the adult lifespan of the test subjects (Grace and Shaw 2004). Future studies should consider including more than two experimental levels of juvenile environment and a more precise accounting for adult age.…”

“…since Brooks (1882) and Dolbear (1897), only recently have researchers begun to explore how environmental variation during the juvenile stages of the life cycle might shape reproductive behavioral reaction norms, e.g. degree to which male mating call varies systematically with ambient temperature (Whitesell and Walker 1978; Olvido and Mousseau 1995; Grace and Shaw 2004). …”