Phenotypic covariance structure and its divergence for acoustic mate attraction signals among four cricket species

Bertram, Susan M.; Fitzsimmons, Lauren P.; McAuley, Emily; Rundle, Howard D.; Gorelick, Root

doi:10.1002/ece3.76

Cited by 18 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 113 publications

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“…Provided body size is heritable (Simons & Roff, ), larger sons should experience higher reproductive success than smaller sons because they are more likely to win aggressive contests with rivals, achieving a high dominance status and access to mating territories; larger sons should also have more mating opportunities because females prefer to mate with dominant over subordinate males (Loranger & Bertram, ). Similarly, larger sons should experience higher reproductive success than smaller sons because larger males signal for mates louder and more often, and females find louder mate signals more attractive (Bertram, Fitzsimmons, McAuley, Rundle, & Gorelick, ; Bertram & Rook, ; Pacheco & Bertram, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is driving male mate preference evolution in Jamaican field crickets?

et al. 2017

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Male mating preferences are often a neglected aspect of studies on sexual selection. Male mating preferences may evolve if they provide males with direct‐fitness benefits such as increased opportunity to fertilize more eggs or indirect‐fitness benefits such as enhanced offspring survival. We tested these ideas using Jamaican field crickets, Gryllus assimilis, previously shown to exhibit male mating preferences. We randomly mated males to either their preferred or non‐preferred potential mates and then asked whether mating treatment influenced egg oviposition or offspring viability. Preferred females were not significantly more fecund and did not produce more viable eggs or offspring than non‐preferred females. Male mate preferences were therefore inconsistent with both the direct‐ and indirect‐fitness benefits hypotheses under the conditions of our experiment. Our null results leave us with an open question about what is driving the evolution of mating preferences in male crickets. Future research should explore the whether the offspring of preferred females are more attractive, have stronger immune systems, and/or experience higher adult longevity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is driving male mate preference evolution in Jamaican field crickets?

et al. 2017

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“…Since repeatability sets the upper limit for heritability, a low value of .05 suggests a greater influence of environmental variables on male calling effort. A laboratory study on four species of field crickets found repeatability of calling effort to range between 0.43–0.96 [61]. In contrast, in anurans, a field study on the Gulf Coast toad, Bufo valliceps , estimated across-night repeatability of calling effort to range between 0.05–0.08 for two out of three years [62].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Field Cricket Calling Behaviour: Implications for Female Mate Search and Mate Choice

Nandi

Balakrishnan

2016

PLoS ONE

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Amount of calling activity (calling effort) is a strong determinant of male mating success in species such as orthopterans and anurans that use acoustic communication in the context of mating behaviour. While many studies in crickets have investigated the determinants of calling effort, patterns of variability in male calling effort in natural choruses remain largely unexplored. Within-individual variability in calling activity across multiple nights of calling can influence female mate search and mate choice strategies. Moreover, calling site fidelity across multiple nights of calling can also affect the female mate sampling strategy. We therefore investigated the spatio-temporal dynamics of acoustic signaling behaviour in a wild population of the field cricket species Plebeiogryllus guttiventris. We first studied the consistency of calling activity by quantifying variation in male calling effort across multiple nights of calling using repeatability analysis. Callers were inconsistent in their calling effort across nights and did not optimize nightly calling effort to increase their total number of nights spent calling. We also estimated calling site fidelity of males across multiple nights by quantifying movement of callers. Callers frequently changed their calling sites across calling nights with substantial displacement but without any significant directionality. Finally, we investigated trade-offs between within-night calling effort and energetically expensive calling song features such as call intensity and chirp rate. Calling effort was not correlated with any of the calling song features, suggesting that energetically expensive song features do not constrain male calling effort. The two key features of signaling behaviour, calling effort and call intensity, which determine the duration and spatial coverage of the sexual signal, are therefore uncorrelated and function independently.

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“…Enhancing time spent calling when carrier frequency is sub-optimal may be an effective compensation strategy to attract females, especially given male G . texensis that spend more time calling also call with higher sound pressure levels (correlation = 0.797; [23]).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field Crickets Compensate for Unattractive Static Long-Distance Call Components by Increasing Dynamic Signalling Effort

McAuley

Bertram

2016

PLoS ONE

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The evolution of multiple sexual signals presents a dilemma since individuals selecting a mate should pay attention to the most honest signal and ignore the rest; however, multiple signals may evolve if, together, they provide more information to the receiver than either one would alone. Static and dynamic signals, for instance, can act as multiple messages, providing information on different aspects of signaller quality that reflect condition at different time scales. While the nature of static signals makes them difficult or impossible for individuals to augment, dynamic signals are much more susceptible to temporary fluctuations in effort. We investigated whether male Texas field crickets, Gryllus texensis, that produce unattractive static signals compensate by dynamically increasing their calling effort. Our findings lend partial support to the compensation hypothesis, as males that called at unattractive carrier frequencies (a static trait) spent more time calling each night (a dynamic trait). Interestingly, this finding was most pronounced in males that called with attractive pulse characteristics (static traits) but did not occur in males that called with unattractive pulse characteristics. Males that signalled with unattractive pulse characteristics (duration and pause) spent less time calling through the night. Our correlative findings on wild caught males suggest that only males that signal with attractive pulse characteristics may be able to afford to pay the costs of both trait exaggeration and increased calling effort to compensate for poor carrier frequencies.

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Phenotypic covariance structure and its divergence for acoustic mate attraction signals among four cricket species

Cited by 18 publications

References 113 publications

What is driving male mate preference evolution in Jamaican field crickets?

What is driving male mate preference evolution in Jamaican field crickets?

Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Field Cricket Calling Behaviour: Implications for Female Mate Search and Mate Choice

Field Crickets Compensate for Unattractive Static Long-Distance Call Components by Increasing Dynamic Signalling Effort

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