Meeting Abstract
P2.15 Monday, Jan. 5 Male field crickets discriminate between pheromones of adult and juvenile females O’MALLEY, P. W.*; POPE, D. S.; Trinity University; Mount Holyoke College pomalley@trinity.edu
The field cricket, Gryllus texensis, uses pheromones for short range communication. Previous work indicates male crickets show preference for pheromones from females that had no previous contact with males. In this study we examined the ability of male crickets to discriminate between male and female pheromones and adult female and juvenile female pheromones. Male crickets were isolated at least 3 days prior to testing. Half the males were isolated after reaching final molt, so these males may have had sexual encounters prior to testing. We collected pheromones on filter paper by isolating the stimulus individuals in Petri dishes for 30 minutes. For each trial, we placed a focal male in the test arena for 2 minutes of acclimation and then presented him with two filter papers. Each male was presented with a contrasting pair of pheromones, either male and adult female, or adult female and juvenile female. For 10 minutes we recorded the time spent by the male on the filter paper with active antennae or maxillary palpi movement. We tested for differences in duration of time spent investigating the two pairs of pheromones presented. We found no significant difference in the behavior of virgin males and males that had been exposed to mature females as adults and therefore grouped all males together for further analysis. Males overall showed no significant difference in time spent investigating male and adult female pheromones. However, when presented with juvenile and adult female pheromones, males spent significantly more time investigating the juvenile female pheromones. Male Gryllus texensis may be sensitive to pheromonal cues of maturity since these may indicate how much previous male contact the female has had, thus enabling males to allocate sperm to virgin females and minimize sperm competition.
