Abstract
Differential investment in offspring by mothers is predicted when there is substantial variation in sire quality. Whether females invest more resources in the offspring of high-quality mates (differential allocation, DA) or in the offspring of low-quality mates (reproductive compensation, RC) is not consistent in the literature and both effects can be predicted by theoretical models. In the field cricket, Grylluspennsylvanicus Burmeister, 1838 (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Gryllinae), females are attracted more to calling songs of high-quality males than to those of low-quality males. We tested whether females invest reproductive resources differentially based on perceived mate quality. We manipulated female perception of male quality by allowing virgin females to approach a speaker broadcasting either high- or low-quality calling song (high or low calling effort respectively), and then mated them with a randomly chosen male that had been rendered incapable of calling. In the week following mating, females exposed to high-quality calling song gained less weight, laid more embryos, and laid larger embryos than females exposed to low-quality calling song, although only the first of these effects was statistically significant. These results support the DA hypothesis and suggest that females invest their reproductive output based on a trait (calling effort) that is an honest indicator of male quality.
Highlights
Mate choice can occur at various stages of mating (Andersson 1994) from discrimination among pre-mating displays (e.g. Gray 1999) to post-copulation favoring of certain ejaculates (e.g. Cunningham and Russell 2000)
One female was exposed to the attractive version while the other female was exposed to the unattractive version
In the first week following exposure to a highquality calling song and mating with a muted male, high-quality song (HT) females gained less weight (Fig. 2), and there was a trend toward them laying larger embryos (Fig. 3) and more embryos (Fig. 4) compared to low-quality song (LT) females exposed to a low-quality calling song and mated to a muted male
Summary
Mate choice can occur at various stages of mating (Andersson 1994) from discrimination among pre-mating displays (e.g. Gray 1999) to post-copulation favoring of certain ejaculates (e.g. Cunningham and Russell 2000). The empirical literature is inconclusive as to which strategy is more prevalent (reviewed in Harris and Uller 2009) This inconsistency can perhaps be explained by the fact that the extent and type of differential investment is dependent on the state of the female (i.e. energetic resources, age) and timing during the breeding season (Harris and Uller 2009), as well as what metric is used to measure differential investment (i.e. clutch or offspring size, Kindsvater and Alonzo 2014)
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