Potential lifetime reproductive success of male bushcrickets parasitized by a phonotactic fly

Males of the bushcricket Poecilimon mariannae are parasitized by the acoustically orienting fly Therobia leonidei. Developing fly larvae reduce male bushcricket survival and reproductive effort. We estimated potential lifetime reproductive success (PLRS) of male bushcrickets to investigate the likel...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Animal behaviour 2006-05, Vol.71 (5), p.1103-1110
Main Authors: Lehmann, Gerlind U.C., Lehmann, Arne W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animal ethology
Animal reproduction
Biological and medical sciences
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Insects
Parasites
Protozoa. Invertebrata
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
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Summary:Males of the bushcricket Poecilimon mariannae are parasitized by the acoustically orienting fly Therobia leonidei. Developing fly larvae reduce male bushcricket survival and reproductive effort. We estimated potential lifetime reproductive success (PLRS) of male bushcrickets to investigate the likely costs of this parasitism. Our analysis explored the relative reduction in PLRS caused by parasitoid infection by examining effects on survival, calling attractiveness and spermatophylax size. We also incorporated nonparasitoid-related mortality. Parasitized males lost 42% of their PLRS compared to nonparasitized males. The shortened life span after parasitism accounted for half of the PLRS reduction. Decreased spermatophylax production also had a major effect on PLRS, while decreased calling attractiveness had a smaller effect. This fitness loss was context dependent and changed with extrinsic nonparasitoid-related mortality. If nonparasitoid-related mortality was high, the selection on host males to avoid parasitism was weak; if it was low, parasitized males lost a considerable amount of reproductive opportunities compared with unparasitized males.
ISSN:0003-3472
1095-8282
DOI:10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.08.009