Responses of intended and unintended receivers to a novel sexual signal suggest clandestine communication.

ABSTRACT: Inadvertent cues can be refined into signals through coevolution between signalers and receivers, yet the earliest steps in this process remain elusive. In Hawaiian populations of the Pacific field cricket, a new morph producing a novel and incredibly variable song (purring) has spread across islands. Here we characterize the current sexual and natural selection landscape acting on the novel signal by (1) determining fitness advantages of purring through attraction to mates and protection from a prominent deadly natural enemy, and (2) testing alternative hypotheses about the strength and form of selection acting on the novel signal. In field studies, female crickets respond positively to purrs, but eavesdropping parasitoid flies do not, suggesting purring may allow private communication am

SUBMITTER: Tinghitella RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7862365 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature