Encounter with heavier females changes courtship and fighting efforts of male field crickets Gryllus bimaculatus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae)

Female field crickets use phonotaxis to locate males by their calling song. Male song production and female behavioural sensitivity form a pair of matched frequency filters, which in Gryllus bimaculatus are tuned to a frequency of about 4.7 kHz. Directional sensitivity is supported by an elaborate system of acoustic tracheae, which make the ears function as pressure difference receivers. As a result, phase differences between left and right sound inputs are transformed into vibration amplitude differences. Here we critically tested the hypothesis that acoustic properties of internal transmissions play a major role in tuning directional sensitivity to the calling song frequency, by measuring tympanal vibrations as a function of sound direction and frequency. Rather than sharp frequency tuning of directional sensitivity corresponding to the calling song, we found broad frequency tuning, with optima shifted to higher frequencies. These findings agree with predictions from a vector summation model for combining external and internal sounds. We show that the model provides robust directional sensitivity that is, however, broadly tuned with an optimum well above the calling song frequency. We therefore advocate that additional filtering, e.g. at a higher (neuronal) level, significantly contributes to frequency tuning of directional sensitivity.

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Sex and the single (-eared) female: leg function, limb autotomy and mating history trade-offs in field crickets ( Gryllus bimaculatus )

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2005.0408 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 33-35 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Philip W Bateman ◽

Patricia A Fleming

Keyword(s):

Mate Location ◽

Central Control ◽

Gryllus Bimaculatus ◽

Mating Status ◽

Male And Female ◽

Field Crickets ◽

Mating History ◽

Hind Limbs ◽

Trade Offs

Both male and female field crickets ( Gryllus bimaculatus ) autotomize front (tympanal) limbs more slowly than hind limbs. Arguably, this pattern could reflect possible differences in the mechanism of limb autotomy. However, we demonstrate that, for females, limb autotomy is also dependent on their mating status: virgin females autotomize front legs significantly more slowly than mated females. This response suggests a central control for leg autotomy in these animals, and less readiness to autotomize a front leg, possibly because the tympanum is crucial for mate location.

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Production of chitin and chitosan from the exoskeleton of adult two-spotted field crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus )

Entomological Research ◽

10.1111/1748-5967.12239 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 47 (5) ◽

pp. 279-285 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Min-Woo Kim ◽

Yong-Su Song ◽

Yeon Soo Han ◽

Yong Hun Jo ◽

Myung Hyo Choi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gryllus Bimaculatus ◽

Field Crickets ◽

Chitin And Chitosan

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Insights into the Gryllus bimaculatus Immune-Related Transcriptomic Profiling to Combat Naturally Invading Pathogens

Journal of Fungi ◽

10.3390/jof6040232 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 232 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Abid Hussain ◽

Muhammad Waqar Ali ◽

Ahmed Mohammed AlJabr ◽

Saad Naser AL-Kahtani

Keyword(s):

Defense Mechanism ◽

Immune Defense ◽

Cdna Libraries ◽

Gryllus Bimaculatus ◽

Illumina Hiseq ◽

Field Crickets ◽

Wide Range ◽

Illumina Hiseq Platform ◽

Immune Related Genes ◽

First Time

Natural pathogen pressure is an important factor that shapes the host immune defense mechanism. The current study primarily aimed to explore the molecular basis of the natural immune defense mechanism of a sporadic pest, Gryllus bimaculatus, during swarming by constructing cDNA libraries of the female mid-gut, male mid-gut, testes, and ovaries. The Illumina HiSeq platform generated an average of 7.9 G, 11.77 G, 10.07 G, and 10.07 G bases of outputs from the male mid-gut, female mid-gut, testes, and ovaries and libraries, respectively. The transcriptome of two-spotted field crickets was assembled into 233,172 UniGenes, which yielded approximately 163.58 million reads. On the other hand, there were 43,055 genes in common that were shared among all the biological samples. Gene Ontology analysis successfully annotated 492 immune-related genes, which comprised mainly Pattern Recognition Receptors (62 genes), Signal modulators (57 genes), Signal transduction (214 genes), Effectors (36 genes), and another immune-related 123 genes. In summary, the identified wide range of immune-related genes from G. bimaculatus indicates the existence of a sophisticated and specialized broad spectrum immune mechanism against invading pathogens, which provides, for the first time, insights into the molecular mechanism of disease resistance among two-spotted field crickets.

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