Reproductive biology of Hawaiian lava crickets

•Hawaiian lava cricket males lack a specialized tibial spur for nuptial gift giving.•Lava crickets have reduced reproductive output compared to other ground crickets.•Ovipositors are longer in lava crickets than in related cave-dwelling species. Insects have spread across diverse ecological niches,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Current research in insect science Vol. 5; p. 100074
Main Authors:	Thadi, Aarcha, Heinen-Kay, Justa, Rotenberry, John T., Zuk, Marlene
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01-01-2024 Elsevier
Subjects:	Caconemobius Extreme environments Lava crickets Life-history evolution Nemobiinae Resource allocation Nemobiinae Caconemobius Lava crickets Resource allocation Life-history evolution Extreme environments
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Summary:	•Hawaiian lava cricket males lack a specialized tibial spur for nuptial gift giving.•Lava crickets have reduced reproductive output compared to other ground crickets.•Ovipositors are longer in lava crickets than in related cave-dwelling species. Insects have spread across diverse ecological niches, including extreme environments requiring specialized traits for survival. However, little is understood about the reproductive traits required to facilitate persistence in such environments. Here, we report on the reproductive biology of two species of endemic Hawaiian lava crickets (Caconemobius fori and Caconemobius anahulu) that inhabit barren lava flows on the Big Island. We examine traits that reflect investment into reproduction for both male and female lava crickets and compare them to the non-extremophile Allard's ground cricket (Allonemobius allardi) in the same sub-family. Lava cricket females possessed fewer, but much larger eggs than ground crickets, while males do not provide the costly nuptial gifts that are characteristic of the Nemobiinae subfamily. Lava crickets also have longer ovipositors relative to their body length than related Caconemobius species that occupy cave habitats on the Hawaiian islands. The differences in reproduction we report reveal how these little-known cricket species may increase survival of their offspring in the resource-deprived conditions of their hot, dry environments. [Display omitted]
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	2666-5158 2666-5158
DOI:	10.1016/j.cris.2024.100074