Meeting Abstract

P2.72  Sunday, Jan. 5 15:30  Trade-Offs Between Reproduction and Immunity in Attractive and Unattractive Males in the Texas Field Cricket (Gryllus texensis) TELEMECO, M.S.C.*; KELLY, C.D.; Iowa State University; Universitè du Quèbec msct@iastate.edu

Investment in immunity and reproduction imposes significant costs to an individual’s resource pool, and so the performance of these fitness-related life-history traits is expected to trade-off with each other. Because sexually attractive males are assumed to be of high genetic quality and better able to acquire and assimilate resources, they should suffer fewer costs from allocating resources to fitness-determining traits. This hypothesis predicts that an immune-challenge will have significant negative effects on reproduction in unattractive males but not in attractive males. Our test of this prediction involved immune-challenging (with lipopolysaccharide, LPS) attractive and unattractive male Texas field crickets (Gryllus texensis) and then quantifying their investment in reproduction, as measured by ejaculate quality (sperm number and viability) and mate-calling effort. Contrary to prediction, mate calling was reduced by our immune challenge in both attractive and unattractive males. Neither attractiveness nor immune challenge significantly affected ejaculate quality. We conclude that male attractiveness does not play a significant role in mediating the effect of an immune-challenge on reproduction in this cricket species.