Question

How does female choice usually operate within cricket populations? That is, do females tend to be choosey, and what criteria do they use to make mating choices? How does female choice work differently for the Kauai field cricket population? Is this difference in female choice an adaptation or not? Explain in details.

Answer 1

1. Note: Male field Crickets produce calling song by Rubbing their forewings together.This call attracts females for mating. Females are choosier that they show preference to Male traits such as body size- favours large males & discriminates small males.Females prefer calls with long bouts than short blunts.

*Cryptic female choice can operate at many points in postcopulatory reproduction processes which includes egg laying, relating etc..

*That's female choice can operate after mating by selectively ejecting sperms of inferior males.

2. Yes females tend to be choosey. The criteria for this is to choose males for good genes, which help to increase female fitness etc..

This choosey behaviour helps females to eject sperms of inferior males after mating. This female choosing is important in evolution of male trait that are not used in male- male competition and traits that are costly in terms of male survival.

3. The female choice work different for Kauai field cricket population because a morphological mutation has rendered over 90% males on kauai silent in fewer than 20 generations-(i.e, females can't choose by calling songs by males).

*Females reared in silent conditions mimicking are discriminating of males calling songs.Here, females are able to compensate for the reduced availability of long- range male sexual signals by there responsiveness to few remaining signals.

4. This difference in female choose in Kauai is an adaptation.

*The difference in choosing causes Evolutionary change & shape sexual selection pressure in natural populations which leads to adaptation.( Adaptation is the environment process where an organism becomes able to live in its habitat).