The complex communication signals in the mating behavior of the tropical cricket Cranistus colliurides Stål, 1861 (Orthoptera: Grylloidea; Trigonidiidae: Phylloscyrtini)

Abstract

Cricket mating behavior reflects different strategies developed by sexual selection throughout evolutionary time. To our knowledge, only one species of the Neotropical cricket Trigonidiinae had its mating behavior studied so far. Here we expand this knowledge by describing the mating behavior of Cranistus colliurides Stål, 1861, a cricket commonly found in bushes and grasses along open fields or the forest edge. Adult crickets were collected in the municipality of Capão do Leão, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Trials were carried out in laboratory to characterize the mating sequence. We quantified elapsed time of each behavioral sequence and discussed its implications in the observed mating behavior. The males of C. colliurides attracted females by means of a continuous trill, and receptive female triggers the beginning of the courtship through antennation. During courtship, copulation and post-copulatory actions, males showed a complex communication system based on information send to female by substrate vibration and an elaborated repertoire composed by calling, courtship and post-copulatory song. The mating behavior here described reveals divergence between related species hitherto studied which give us clues to understand how the sexual selection shaped the complex behaviors exhibited by Trigonidiinae crickets presently.

Substrate-borne vibrations used during acoustic communication and the existence of courtship songs in some species of the genus Anaxipha (Saussure) (Orthoptera: Trigonidiidae: Trigonidiinae)

“…This is the first report showing that members of the genus Anaxipha use substrate-borne vibrations as a possible method of communication and the first to demonstrate that these trigs produce courtship songs that are distinctly different from their typical calling songs. The use of courtship songs in other Gryllidae is well known (Alexander and Otte 1967), but little is known about the acoustic courtship behavior of the Trigonidiinae, with mating behavior reported in only a few species (Spooner 1972, Ingrisch 1977, Mendelson and Shaw 2002, Fergus et al 2011, Shaw and Khine 2004, Funk 2016, Centeno and Zefa 2019. Males of all four species in this study produced songs that were statistically different from their calling songs when in the presence of conspecific females, and all four species exhibited drumming during courtship singing.…”

Acoustic signalling in Orthoptera

“…Berger and Gottsberger, 2010;Ostrowski et al, 2009;Vedenina et al, 2020). Additional signalling modalities have been identified in courtship, for example vibration in the crickets Adelosgryllus rubricephalus (Zefa et al, 2008), Cranistus colliurides (Centeno and Zefa, 2019) and Ornebius aperta (Andrade and Mason, 2000), chemical cues in the grasshoppers Chorthippus biguttulus and C. mollis (Finck and Ronacher, 2017), and probably chemical and tactile cues in the bush-cricket Mecopoda elongata (Dutta et al, 2018). In bush-crickets visual cues can be important during phonotaxis.…”