The juvenile social environment introduces variation in the choice and expression of sexually selected traits

Abstract

The juvenile environment provides numerous cues of the intensity of competition and the availability of mates in the near environment. As research demonstrates that the developing individuals can use these cues to alter their developmental trajectories, and therefore, adult phenotypes, we examined whether social cues available during development can affect the expression and the preference of sexually selected traits. To examine this, we used the Australian black field cricket (Telogryllus commodus), a species where condition at maturity is known to affect both male calling effort and female choice. We mimicked different social environments by rearing juveniles in two different densities crossed with three different calling environments. We demonstrate that the social environment affected female response speed but not preference, and male age‐specific calling effort (especially the rate of senescence in calling effort) but not the structural/temporal parameters of calls. These results demonstrate that the social environment can introduce variation in sexually selected traits by modifying the behavioral components of male production and female choice, suggesting that the social environment may be an overlooked source of phenotypic variation. We discuss the plasticity of trait expression and preference in reference to estimations of male quality and the concept of condition dependence.

Female mate choice plasticity is affected by the interaction between male density and female age in a field cricket

“…Indeed, adult field crickets show behavioural differences based upon the male calling environments that they experienced recently (Bailey & Macleod, 2014;Bailey & Zuk, 2008, 2009) and as juveniles (Bailey, Gray, & Zuk, 2010;DiRienzo, Pruitt, & Hedrick, 2012;Kasumovic, 2013;Kasumovic, Hall, & Brooks, 2012). Specifically, female field crickets have repeatedly been shown to express stronger responses to male calls following exposure to less variable calls (Kasumovic et al, 2012), less preferred calls (Bailey & Zuk, 2009), or silence (Bailey & Macleod, 2014;Bailey & Zuk, 2008). If our females did remember their social environment more than the 6 days prior to testing, then their behaviour during the test may have been based on more than just the information gathered while in the low-or high-density treatments.…”

Australian black field crickets show changes in neural gene expression associated with socially-induced morphological, life-history, and behavioral plasticity

“…Males reared in an environment with a greater density of calls mature later and are heavier and larger than when reared under lower calling densities [23]. Males further match their own calling effort to their local competitive context [24], rendering them more competitive in a crowded environment [18]. In contrast, females in a high density environment mature smaller, but develop significantly faster, allowing them to exploit the high density of available males [23].…”

“…In contrast, females in a high density environment mature smaller, but develop significantly faster, allowing them to exploit the high density of available males [23]. Females compensate for their smaller size by producing more eggs [23] and are able to make faster mating decisions [24]. This socially-induced developmental tactic [5] thus results in changes in the relationships between morphological, life-history and behavioural traits, associated with differences in development rate.…”

The effects of social experience with varying male availability on female mate preferences in a wolf spider

“…While the relationship between total males and the likelihood for females to be receptive to males with small tufts is negative, it is not significant (logistic regression Z=1.586, P=0.1130). Vertical lines indicate the standard error of the predicted probability of the logistic regression fit invertebrate species adds to current research that demonstrates that invertebrate behaviors are not rigid in their matingpref- erences (butterflies: Westerman et al 2012pref- erences (butterflies: Westerman et al , 2014 crickets: Bailey and Zuk 2008;Bailey 2011;Kasumovic et al 2012;Bailey and Macleod 2014;Atwell and Wagner 2014; fruit flies: Dukas 2005; katydids: Fowler-Finn and Rodriguez 2012; wolf spiders: Hebets 2003;Hebets and Vink 2007;Hebets 2007; …”

“…Recent research across a variety of arthropods has demonstrated that invertebrates are not rigid in their mating preferences, making them useful study organisms to investigate SCAP (fruit flies : Dukas 2005;katydids: Fowler-Finn and Rodriguez 2012;crickets: Bailey and Zuk 2008;Bailey 2011;Kasumovic et al 2012;Bailey and Macleod 2014;wolf spiders: Hebets 2003;Hebets and Vink 2007;Hebets 2007;Rutledge et al 2010). In particular, Schizocosa ocreata is a useful organism to study the plasticity of female mate preferences for several reasons.…”