Department of Biology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstr. 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2012 Oct;198(10):763-75. doi: 10.1007/s00359-012-0746-x. Epub 2012 Aug 23.
We investigated four populations of the grasshopper Chorthippus biguttulus with respect to differences in morphological traits and characteristics of their communication signals. A special focus was laid on possible correlations between morphological and song traits of males that could be used by females to infer quality cues of potential mates. We also tested whether females exhibit preferences for males of their own population. Specific song features (onset accentuation, offset, syllable period) of males-but not of females-differed between populations. We observed size differences both in males and females from different populations, but the size ranks of the two sexes were not always correlated. Environmental factors appear to have a strong influence on different size traits, compared to genetic origin. In all populations a specific song feature, the accentuation of syllable onsets, showed a similar correlation with a morphological trait, hind leg size, but its correlation with other size indicators sometimes differed in sign. Females did not prefer songs of males from their own population. The best predictor for song attractiveness was-unexpectedly-not the onset accentuation but the offset depth.
我们研究了四个种群的蚱蜢 Chorthippus biguttulus，以研究它们在形态特征和通讯信号特征方面的差异。特别关注的是雄性的形态和歌声特征之间可能存在的相关性，这些相关性可被雌性用来推断潜在配偶的质量线索。我们还测试了雌性是否对自己种群的雄性表现出偏好。雄性——而不是雌性——的特定歌声特征（起始强调、结束、音节周期）在种群之间存在差异。我们观察到来自不同种群的雄性和雌性都存在大小差异，但两性的大小等级并不总是相关的。与遗传起源相比，环境因素对不同的大小特征有更强的影响。在所有种群中，一个特定的歌声特征，即音节起始的强调程度，与形态特征，后腿大小，表现出相似的相关性，但它与其他大小指标的相关性在符号上有时不同。雌性并不喜欢来自自己种群的雄性的歌声。令人惊讶的是，歌声吸引力的最佳预测因子不是起始强调，而是结束深度。
