Environmental and social influences on calling effort in the prairie mole cricket (<i>Gryllotalpa major</i>)

Abstract

Sexual advertisement in the form of acoustic display is energetically expensive. Calling effort, or metabolic energy expended specifically for advertisement, is adjusted in some species in response to competition from other males or to changes in climatic conditions. The prairie mole cricket (Gryllotatpa major) is a rare insect of die south-central United States that produces its calling song, or advertisement rail, from a specially constructed burrow in taugrass prairie soil. I found that prairie mole cricket males do not adjust their call amplitude with competition or female availability, nor do they vary amplitude with soil temperature or moisture within their established range of calling conditions. Chirp rate adjustments were made with social interactions and changes in soil temperature, but group size did not influence calling effort Males produced more complex calls in response to closer calling neighbors, but prairie mole cricket males may selectively respond to only the nearest one to two neighbors.