Female choice for an indicator of male size in the song of the black-horned tree cricket, Oecanthus nigricornis (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Oecanthinae)

The calling song of male crickets, including Oecanthus nigricornis (Walker), attracts females for mating and provides a model system of sexual communication. We give the first conclusive identification of a feature of cricket song that is both attractive to females and indicates a phenotypic feature...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolution 1996-12, Vol.50 (6), p.2400-2411
Main Authors: Brown, W.D. (Universite de Lausanne, Switzerland.), Wideman, J, Andrade, M.C.B, Mason, A.C, Gwynne, D.T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal communication
Animal reproduction
Bioacoustics
BODY SIZE
CALLING SONG
communication
COMPORTAMIENTO SEXUAL
COMPORTEMENT SEXUEL
Crickets
DIMENSION
DIMENSIONS
Evolution
Female animals
FEMALES
FEMELLE
Gryllidae
HEMBRA
Insect behavior
Insect reproduction
Insect sounds
Insects
MACHO
MALE
Male animals
MALES
mate choice
MATE QUALITY
MATING BEHAVIOR
OECANTHUS
Oecanthus nigricornis
Orthoptera
Phenotypic traits
Phonotaxis
Pulse duration
SEX
SEXE
SEXO
Sexual behavior
SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR
SEXUAL SELECTION
Sexual selection in animals
SON (ACOUSTIQUE)
SONIDO
SOUND
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The calling song of male crickets, including Oecanthus nigricornis (Walker), attracts females for mating and provides a model system of sexual communication. We give the first conclusive identification of a feature of cricket song that is both attractive to females and indicates a phenotypic feature (body size) that determines male mating success and female reproductive benefits. We do this by first testing for correlations between song characteristics and aspects of male phenotype that are hypothesized to indicate male quality We show that song is a reliable indicator of male size and male age, and that large male size is associated with increased female fecundity. We then use playbacks of synthetic songs that mimic natural variation in song parameters to study song preferences and we compare preferences under different presentation regimes to determine whether choices are based on relative song quality or some fixed criterion. Females show a preference for the lower frequency songs produced by large males, but only during simultaneous playbacks. Thus female choice is based on the relative quality of calls that can be sampled simultaneously. These results provide strong support for the hypothesis that females use variation in calling song to assess male mate quality.
ISSN:0014-3820
1558-5646
DOI:10.1111/j.1558-5646.1996.tb03627.x