Chivalrous male cricket would die for his female
October 7th, 2011 - 4:22 pm ICT by IANSLondon, Oct 7 (IANS) Chivalrous male crickets are willing to lay down their lives for their lady loves, so that their genetic legacy and offpsring can live on, new research says.
But chivalry exacts a steep cost. A male on guard duty is six times as likely to be killed when attacked by a predator as a lone male, says the University of Exeter study.
A female with a protector has much higher chances of survival than one left to her own devices, the journal Current Biology reports.
“It looks like males really wait until a female is under cover before getting themselves to safety. Guarding seems to be their top priority,” said researcher Tom Tregenza.
The study used a combination of cameras, microphones, DNA tests and identification tags to study the insects’ movements in the wild, according to the Daily Mail.
Observations around the crickets’ narrow grass burrows showed that a male will risk his own life to protect a female by allowing her to scamper to safety before him.
However, his jealous guarding of his female stops her from mating with rivals and ups the odds of him leaving offspring behind.
The DNA fingerprinting allowed the researchers to piece together ‘family trees’ and work out how many youngs each cricket had.
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Tags: burrows, chivalry, cricket, crickets, current biology, daily mail, dna tests, family trees, insects, male crickets, microphones, oct 7, offspring, predator, researcher, rivals, six times, top priority, university of exeter, ups