Jc. Johnson et al., Female remating propensity contingent on sexual cannibalism in sagebrush crickets, Cyphoderris strepitans: a mechanism of cryptic female choice, BEH ECOLOGY, 10(3), 1999, pp. 227-233
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.