Courtship song is more variable than calling song in the field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus

Most cricket species have two types of acoustic signals used in mating: the calling song, which attracts females from a distance, and the courtship song, which is given only when a female has come in contact with a male. We propose that the calling song is used mainly for species recognition, while...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Animal behaviour Vol. 76; no. 3; pp. 1065 - 1071
Main Authors:	Zuk, Marlene, Rebar, Darren, Scott, Sarah Primrose
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Kent Elsevier Ltd 01-09-2008 Elsevier Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Ltd
Subjects:	Animal behavior Animal communication Animal ethology Animal reproduction Biological and medical sciences courtship song cricket song field cricket Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Gryllidae Insects Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry Teleogryllus oceanicus cricket song field cricket courtship song Teleogryllus oceanicus Acoustic communication Animal communication Sound production Insecta Orthoptera Sexual behavior Gryllidae Courtship behavior Breeding behavior Song Arthropoda Invertebrata
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Summary:	Most cricket species have two types of acoustic signals used in mating: the calling song, which attracts females from a distance, and the courtship song, which is given only when a female has come in contact with a male. We propose that the calling song is used mainly for species recognition, while the courtship song may contain information about an individual male's quality. Calling song is therefore expected to be more stereotyped and less variable than courtship song. A comparison of coefficients of variation in the two types of song in Teleogryllus oceanicus supported this prediction, with five of eight song elements significantly more variable in courtship than in calling song. The remaining song elements did not differ in variability between courtship and calling song. The difference did not depend on the response of the female being courted, as similar results were obtained when males courted dead females.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23
ISSN:	0003-3472 1095-8282
DOI:	10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.02.018