Female remating propensity contingent on sexual cannibalism in sagebrush crickets, Cyphoderris strepitans: a mechanism of cryptic female choice

Male sagebrush crickets (Cyphoderris strepitans) permit females to engage i n an unusual form of sexual cannibalism during copulation: females feed on males' fleshy hind wings and ingest hemolymph oozing from the wounds they i nflict. These wounds are not fatal, and normally only a portion of the hind wings are eaten at any one mating, so that mated males are not precluded f rom mating again. As a result, nonvirgin males have fewer material resource s to offer females than do virgin males, such that females should be select ed to preferentially mate with high-investment virgin males. We tested the hypothesis that female mating preferences favor males capable of supplying females with the highest material investment. Our results indicate that bot h female diet and opportunities for sexual cannibalism influence female mat ing behavior. Females maintained on a low-nutrient diet mounted males signi ficantly sooner than females maintained on a high-nutrient diet, indicating that a female's overall nutrient intake may determine her propensity to ma te. In addition, females were significantly more reluctant to mount and mat e with males whose hind wings had been surgically removed and thus were inc apable of providing females with a wing meal. Finally, females initially ma ted to dewinged males remated with winged males significantly sooner than f emales allowed to feed freely during their initial mating, resulting in cry ptic female choice of investing males.