Department of Biology, Carleton University , Ottawa, Ontario , Canada.
PeerJ. 2013 Aug 8;1:e130. doi: 10.7717/peerj.130. Print 2013.
Female mating preference can be a dominant force shaping the evolution of sexual signals. However, females rarely have consistent mating preferences throughout their lives. Preference flexibility results from complex interactions of predation risk, social and sexual experience, and age. Because residual reproductive value should theoretically decline with age, older females should not be as choosy as younger females. We explored how age influences phonotaxis towards a standard mate attraction signal using a spherical treadmill (trackball) and a no-choice experimental protocol. Female Jamaican field crickets, Gryllus assimilis, were highly variable in their phonotaxis; age explained up to 64% of this variation. Females 10 days post imaginal eclosion and older oriented toward the mate attraction signal, with 10- and 13-day females exhibiting the greatest movement in the direction of the signal. Our study suggests 10- and 13-day old females would be most responsive when quantifying the preference landscape for G. assimilis sexual signals.
雌性的交配偏好可能是塑造性信号进化的主要力量。然而，雌性在其一生中很少有一致的交配偏好。偏好的灵活性源于捕食风险、社会和性经验以及年龄的复杂相互作用。由于剩余生殖价值理论上会随着年龄的增长而下降，因此年长的雌性应该不如年轻的雌性挑剔。我们使用球形跑步机（轨迹球）和非选择实验方案来探索年龄如何影响对标准配偶吸引信号的发声趋性。牙买加田野蟋蟀 Gryllus assimilis 的雌性在发声趋性上具有高度的可变性；年龄可以解释这种变化的 64%。羽化后 10 天及以上的雌性会向配偶吸引信号定向，10 天和 13 天的雌性向信号方向移动的幅度最大。我们的研究表明，在量化 G. assimilis 性信号的偏好景观时，10 天和 13 天的雌性反应最为灵敏。
