Females Receive a Life-Span Benefit From Male Ejaculates in a Field Cricket

Abstract

Mating has been found to be costly for females of some species because of toxic products that males transfer to females in their seminal fluid. Such mating costs seem paradoxical, particularly for species in which females mate more frequently than is necessary to fertilize their eggs. Indeed, some studies suggest that females may benefit from mating more frequently. The effect of male ejaculates on female life span and lifetime fecundity was experimentally tested in the variable field cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps. In field crickets, females will mate repeatedly with a given male and mate with multiple males. Females that were experimentally mated either repeatedly or multiply lived more than 32% longer than singly mated females. In addition, multiply mated females produced 98% more eggs than singly mated females. Because females received only sperm and seminal fluid from males in the experimental matings, these life-span and fecundity benefits may result from beneficial seminal fluid products that males transfer to females during mating. Mating benefits rather than mating costs may be common in many animals, particularly in species where female mate choice has a larger effect on male reproductive success than does the outcome of sperm competition.

No Evidence for Inbreeding Avoidance Through Postcopulatory Mechanisms in the Black Field Cricket, Teleogryllus Commodus

“…Males do not produce a nutritious spermatophylax, and the spermatophore is small, weighing, on average, about 0.66% of body mass (Evans 1988). Although Wagner et al (2001) found that repeated mating increased fecundity in another field cricket with small spermatophores, comparison of female T. commodus experimentally assigned either one or three matings with a single male revealed no difference in lifetime fecundity or egg hatching success (M. D. Jennions, J. Hunt, and R. C. Brooks, unpubl.…”

Understanding the link between sexual selection, sexual conflict and aging using crickets as a model

“…Responses to each treatment are described as the effect of multiple mating relative to the control: NA -trait not assayed, ↑ -trait value increased, ↓ -trait value decreased, X -no effect of treatment. (Fedorka and Zuk, 2005); [3] (Wagner et al, 2001);[4] (Ivy and Sakaluk, 2005); [5] (Burpee and Sakaluk, 1993), [6] (Gershman, 2010);[7] (Gershman, 2007). * this study conducted principal component analysis (PCA) and so PCA values have been associated with the most appropriate fitness trait, † in this study, diet was manipulated but we present data for animals fed ad libitum.…”

Nuptial feeding of spermless spermatophores in the Hawaiian swordtail cricket, Laupala pacifica (Gryllidae: Triginodiinae)

“…In Teleogryllus commodus, egg-laying activity was stimulated by prostaglandin injections and oviposition increase was a function of prostaglandin quantity (StanleySamuelson et al 1986). Laupala ejaculate may also contain beneficial substances as found in Gryllus lineaticeps, where repeated mating has been demonstrated to significantly lengthen female lifespan and as a result increase lifetime fecundity (Wagner et al 2001). Alternatively, it could just be the copulatory action that is important, rather than the reception of microspermatophores by females.…”