Meeting Abstract
Animal mating signals are typically species-specific and can be important barriers to gene flow among ecologically divergent species. Cricket calls are being well studied in this regard, and species differences in male song and female song recognition are known to be important components of reproductive isolation in certain species-pairs. Here we present data on the songs of two currently undescribed cricket species: Gryllus “saxatilis” and Gryllus “navajo”. These crickets are a closely-related species-pair that are parapatrically distributed in the western USA. G. “saxatilis” favors dry rocky slopes throughout California, and in the Mohave, and Great Basin deserts, whereas G. “navajo” is restricted to the painted desert region of south-eastern Utah and north-eastern Arizona in areas of red sandstone and reddish badlands clay soils. We analyze calls from multiple populations of both cricket species using the computer program Audacity. The data collected will address whether cricket song is sufficiently divergent to potentially function to promote reproductive isolation between the two species.
