Richard B. Gump South Pacific Research Station

12 Dec, 12 PM - 18 Dec, 12 PM

Our lab studies the causes and consequences of sexual signal variation in the Pacific field cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus. The Pacific field cricket is native to Australia and island-hopped through the Pacific, colonizing French Polynesia, and arriving most recently in Hawaii. Over the past 20 years, we have discovered multiple new male morphs in Hawaiian populations that produce novel mating songs (purring, rattling, curly). We are capitalizing on this remarkable set of events to test classic alternative hypotheses for the evolution of new animal signals: did female cricket preferences for these novel songs exist in ancestral populations prior to their evolution (preferences first)? Or do preferences follow the emergence of novel signals (signals first)? One particularly relevant idea is that novel signals might be facilitated by relaxed selection on female preferences when island populations are founded (e.g. Kaneshiro’s hypothesis). There is some evidence in our study system that that may be the case in Hawaii. Preliminary data suggest that Australian females are less responsive to the novel songs than Hawaiian females are (unpublished data), suggesting that preferences may be relaxed in Hawaii. However, the evolution of novel songs in Hawaii was also favored by strong natural selection from an eavesdropping parasitoid fly, making it difficult to ascertain the role of relaxed mating preferences. Because the Mo’orea population is ancestral to those in Hawaii and experienced a strong bottleneck when colonized, but the fly is not present there, nor are the ancestral songs, the Mo'orea population at the Gump Station is a fantastic test group that will allow us to determine whether female preferences were relaxed prior to the evolution of novel songs. On this trip we will conduct minimally destructive behavioral experiments to determine if island bottlenecks led to a relaxation in female preferences for novel songs in Mo’orea. We will also collect tissue samples for future investigations into the genetic basis of relaxed selection on female preferences.

Visit #87176 @Richard B. Gump South Pacific Research Station

Approved

Under Project # 45449 | Research

Cricket mating song preference evolution

faculty - University of Denver

Reservation Members(s)

Gabrielle Welsh Dec 12 - 18, 2023 (7 days)
Mary Westwood Dec 12 - 18, 2023 (7 days)

Reserve Resources(s) | Create Invoice

Bed in private room 1 Dec 14 - 20, 2023
Biocode Lab 1 Dec 14 - 20, 2023
Ford Ranger 4x4 (White) 1 Dec 14 - 20, 2023