Correlated sexual selection on male genitalia, copulatory performance and nuptial gifts in a bushcricket (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) indicated by allometric scaling

Abstract

Abstract We adopt an allometric framework of scaling relationships for comparison between mating-related traits in the middle European bushcricket Roeseliana roeselii (Hagenbach, 1822). Eight characters, covering ontogenetic fitness (size traits; fixed at final moult), male condition (mass traits) and mating motivation (reproductive behaviours), were analysed in unrestricted matings and in matings involving genital manipulation. Shortening the male titillators had no effect on mating-related traits in males. However, titillators, known to be under sexual selection, scale hyperallometrically, with larger males possessing proportionally longer titillators, performing more titillator movements and exhibiting a reduced duration of copulation. Scaling was also hyperallometric for spermatophore mass, with larger males being heavier and transferring heavier nuptial gifts. Both titillator length and spermatophore mass might be condition-dependent indicators, because their variances were nearly twice as large those of body size or body mass. Mass traits were also dynamic, increasing by 11% for male body mass and 17% for spermatophore mass between the first and second matings. Sexual selection by female choice seems to favour larger trait size in the bushcricket R. roeselii, acting in concert on titillator length, intensity of titillator movements and spermatophore mass.