Choosing the greater of two crickets: Consequences of female mate choice in the house cricket, Acheta domesticus

Mating with attractive males can have costs and benefits for females. I first measured the attractiveness of male house crickets, Acheta domesticus. Secondly, I examined female preferences for attractive male chemical cues. Lastly, I determined the benefits and costs of mating with attractive or unattractive males. I hypothesized that, when given a choice between two males, females would choose the larger of the two males and would prefer chemical cues from larger males. Also, I hypothesized that mating with larger preferred ("attractive") males will decrease female lifespan and fecundity to a greater degree than mating with smaller not preferred ("unattractive") males. Males that were mounted first in two successive trials were larger than males that were mounted last or not at all. Females spent significantly more time on attractive versus unattractive males' rag paper, when given the choice between the two. There was no effect of mating with attractive versus unattractive males on egg production and lifespan. The number of eggs a female produced was positively related to her mass and lifespan. These data suggest the degree of sexual conflict when females have few mating opportunities may be minimal in comparison to situations where females are housed with males for prolonged periods of time. Further, one might expect a high degree of sexual conflict in a species that lives at high population densities and a polyandrous mating system. It is important that studies of sexual conflict consider the ecological conditions and mating systems when designing experiments to test this hypothesis.