No relationship between long-distance acoustic mate attraction signals and male fertility or female preference in spring field crickets

• Published in: Behavioral ecology and sociobiology Vol. 67; no. 6; pp. 885 - 893
• Main Authors: Fitzsimmons, Lauren P., Bertram, Susan M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer 01.06.2013; Springer-Verlag; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acoustics; Animal communication; Animal Ecology; Animal reproduction; Behavioral Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Chirp; Female animals; Fertility; Genotype & phenotype; Gryllidae; Insect behavior; Insect reproduction; Insects; Life cycles; Life Sciences; Male animals; Male fertility; Mating behavior; Offspring; Original Paper; Phenotypic traits; Spermatozoa; Viability; Zoology; Sexual selection; Acoustic signal; Mate attraction; Y model; Phenotype-linked fertility; Life-history theory; Sperm competition
• ISSN: 0340-5443; 1432-0762
• DOI: 10.1007/s00265-013-1511-z

To father offspring, a male must succeed at two processes of sexual selection: (1) mate with a female and (2) fertilize her eggs. We investigated the relationships between pre- and post-copulatory male traits and female mating responses in wild-captured and laboratory-reared spring field crickets, Gryllus veletis. The phenotype-linked fertility hypothesis suggests that females may receive a direct benefit, enhanced fertilization efficiency, by mating with males that signal attractively. We measured fine-scale components of male acoustic mate attraction signals as well as how much time males spent signalling, measured female preference for males in mating trials and then quantified sperm number and viability. We found no relationship between male signalling traits and male fertility or female preference, providing no evidence for the phenotype-linked fertility hypothesis. We also found no difference in sperm metrics between wild-captured and laboratory-reared males. While female crickets may receive benefits by choosing males based on acoustic signal characteristics, whether the benefits are a result of genetic quality, seminal fluid contents or some other male trait remains unknown.