The role of conspecifics in habitat settlement in a territorial grasshopper

• Published in: Animal behaviour Vol. 56; no. 2; pp. 479 - 485
• Main Author: MULLER, KATHERINE L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kent Elsevier Ltd 01-08-1998; Elsevier; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Ltd
• Subjects: Animal behavior; Animal ethology; Biological and medical sciences; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Habitats; Insects; Ligurotettix coquilletti; Protozoa. Invertebrata; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; California; United States; North America; America; Acoustic communication; Animal communication; Intraspecific relation; Sound production; Insecta; Orthoptera; Male; Habitat selection; Acrididae; Territorial behavior; Social interaction; Arthropoda; Vision; Acridoidea; Perception; Invertebrata; Field study
• ISSN: 0003-3472; 1095-8282
• DOI: 10.1006/anbe.1998.0806

Conspecifics may play a positive, neutral or negative role in the habitat choices of prospective settlers. I investigated the effect of conspecifics on habitat choice in a territorial grasshopper,Ligurotettix coquilletti, in three field experiments using both broadcast calls and live males as stimuli. In a two-bush choice experiment, males chose bushes from which conspecific calls were broadcast over either silent bushes or bushes broadcasting calls of another grasshopper species. When presented with a choice between broad-cast calls and a live conspecific male, however, males preferred bushes that contained a live male. In the third experiment, males were more strongly attracted to bushes occupied by a single territorial male than to unoccupied bushes, but had a lower probability of remaining on occupied bushes over an extended period. Despite the lower overall probability of remaining on a bush, males remained clustered on the occupied bushes at the end of this experiment because of their high initial attraction to occupied bushes.