Hearing sexual signals helps male crickets grow larger
May 13th, 2010 - 3:49 pm ICT by IANSWashington, May 13 (IANS) Male crickets growing in the presence of loud songs used as sexual signals tend to be larger than those growing up in a silent environment, research says.
Adult male crickets produce a loud song to attract females. The song, which permeates the air, can be overheard also by unintended receivers - such as young males unable to sing due to a mutation they carry.
University of California-Riverside biologists exposed a set of juvenile male crickets to a silent environment and a second set to a song-rich environment.
They found that male crickets growing up in the presence of abundant male song tend to be larger than male crickets growing up in a silent environment, and invest nearly 10 percent more reproductive tissue mass in their testes.
“Larger is probably better for the crickets because it allows males to better compete against other males in their environment,” said Nathan Bailey, who led the study as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Marlene Zuk, University of California-Riverside biology professor.
“Being flexible according to who is around can be beneficial and help maximise the chance of reproducing,” Bailey added.
Until now researchers have not understood how non-singing male crickets use the song of singing males to modify their behaviour or physical attributes to their advantage.
Researchers also found that male crickets that do not hear the song during rearing are more likely to act as ’satellites’, hanging out near singing males and intercepting females on their way for mating.
“On a more global scale, people often think of insects, especially the non-social insects, as mindless automatons, pre-programmed to carry out simple procedures throughout their lives,” Bailey said, according to a University of California-Riverside release.
“Our research shows quite the opposite, and demonstrates how even small, inconspicuous animals respond to the vagaries of their social environment by capitalising on conspicuous signals that are intended for a different receiver,” he added.
The findings were published in the Wednesday edition of Current Biology.
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Tags: automatons, biology professor, crickets, global scale, loud song, loud songs, male crickets, marlene zuk, nathan bailey, physical attributes, postdoctoral researcher, reproductive tissue, rich environment, sexual signals, silent environment, social environment, social insects, tissue mass, university of california riverside, vagaries