Department of Life Sciences and Division of EcoScience, Ewha University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
PLoS One. 2011 Jan 20;6(1):e16063. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016063.
In many species males aggregate and produce long-range advertisement signals to attract conspecific females. The majority of the receivers of these signals are probably other males most of the time, and male responses to competitors' signals can structure the spatial and temporal organization of the breeding aggregation and affect male mating tactics. I quantified male responses to a conspecific advertisement stimulus repeatedly over three age classes in Gryllus rubens (Orthoptera: Gryllidae) in order to estimate the type and frequency of male responses to the broadcast stimulus and to determine the factors affecting them. Factors tested included body size, wing dimorphism, age, and intensity of the broadcast stimulus. Overall, males employed acoustic response more often than positive phonotactic response. As males aged, the frequency of positive phonotactic response decreased but that of the acoustic response increased. That is, males may use positive phonotaxis in the early stages of their adult lives, possibly to find suitable calling sites or parasitize calling males, and then later in life switch to acoustic responses in response to conspecific advertisement signals. Males with smaller body size more frequently exhibited acoustic responses. This study suggests that individual variation, more than any factors measured, is critical for age-dependent male responses to conspecific advertisement signals.
在许多物种中，雄性聚集在一起并发出长距离的广告信号，以吸引同种的雌性。这些信号的大多数接收者很可能是其他雄性，而且雄性对竞争对手信号的反应可以构建繁殖聚集的时空组织，并影响雄性的交配策略。我在红蟋蟀（直翅目：蟋蟀科）中，通过三个年龄组，反复对雄性对同种广告刺激的反应进行了量化，以估计雄性对广播刺激的反应类型和频率，并确定影响它们的因素。测试的因素包括体型、翅膀二态性、年龄和广播刺激的强度。总的来说，雄性更多地使用声学反应而不是正趋音反应。随着雄性年龄的增长，正趋音反应的频率降低，而声学反应的频率增加。也就是说，雄性可能在其成年早期使用正趋音性，可能是为了找到合适的鸣叫地点或寄生鸣叫雄性，然后在以后的生活中，对同种的广告信号做出声学反应。体型较小的雄性更频繁地表现出声学反应。本研究表明，个体变异比任何测量因素都更关键，决定了雄性对同种广告信号的年龄依赖性反应。
