Variation in singing behaviour among morphs of the sand field cricket, Gryllus firmus
2011
MITRA, CHANDREYEE | Wagner, William E. | ZERA, ANTHONY J. | TOLLE, AMANDA E.
1. Trade-offs play a fundamental role in the evolution of many traits. 2. In wing-polymorphic field crickets, the long-winged morph can disperse from unfavourable environments, but has lower reproductive success than the short-winged morph, because of costs associated with flight capability. 3. However, long-winged individuals may minimise costs in favourable environments by histolysing their flight muscles and becoming flightless. 4. Few studies have examined how flight-muscle histolysis affects male signalling and mate attraction. 5. We examined differences in singing activity and song characteristics among the flightless (short-winged and histolysed long-winged) and the flight-capable male morphs, and female preferences for male song, in the sand field cricket. 6. We found: (i) both flightless morphs sang more than the flight-capable morph, (ii) song characteristics varied among the three morphs, and (iii) females preferred songs characteristic of the long-winged morphs. 7. Histolysis should increase mating success of long-winged males because it increases singing activity. 8. Histolysed long-winged males may have higher mating success than short-winged males as they sing as frequently but produce more attractive songs. 9. Therefore, plasticity within the long-winged morph may reduce costs of maturing in environments from which dispersal is not advantageous; non-flying morphs may be pursuing different reproductive tactics.
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