Abstract

Uncovering mate choice and factors that lead to the choice are very important to understanding sexual selection in evolutionary change. Cicadas are known for their loud sounds produced by males using the timbals. However, males in certain cicada species emit 2 kinds of sounds using respectively timbals and stridulatory organs, and females may produce their own sounds to respond to males. What has never been considered is the mate choice in such cicada species. Here, we investigate the sexual selection and potential impact of predation pressure on mate choice in the cicada Subpsaltria yangi Chen. It possesses stridulatory sound-producing organs in both sexes in addition to the timbals in males. Results show that males producing calling songs with shorter timbal–stridulatory sound intervals and a higher call rate achieved greater mating success. No morphological traits were found to be correlated with mating success in both sexes, suggesting neither males nor females display mate preference for the opposite sex based on morphological traits. Males do not discriminate among responding females during mate searching, which may be due to the high energy costs associated with their unusual mate-seeking activity and the male-biased predation pressure. Females generally mate once but a minority of them re-mated after oviposition which, combined with the desirable acoustic traits of males, suggest females may maximize their reproductive success by choosing a high-quality male in the first place. This study contributes to our understanding mechanisms of sexual selection in cicadas and other insects suffering selective pressure from predators.

中文翻译：

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在蝉类中，雌性更喜欢雄性产生高频率的歌声，同时具有较短的鼓声-颤音间隔

摘要

揭示配偶选择和导致选择的因素对于理解进化变化中的性选择非常重要。蝉以雄性使用鼓槌发出的响亮声音而闻名。然而，某些蝉的雄性会分别使用鼓膜和颤音器官发出两种声音，而雌性可能会发出自己的声音来回应雄性。从未考虑过的是这种蝉物种的配偶选择。在这里，我们调查了蝉Subpsaltria yangi的性选择和捕食压力对配偶选择的潜在影响陈。除了雄性的鼓膜外，它还具有两性的发声器官。结果表明，发出声音间隔较短且呼叫率较高的男性发出的呼叫歌曲取得了更大的交配成功。没有发现形态特征与两性的交配成功相关，这表明男性和女性都不会根据形态特征表现出对异性的择偶偏好。雄性在寻找配偶期间不会区分有反应的雌性，这可能是由于与它们不寻常的寻找配偶活动和偏向雄性的捕食压力相关的高能量成本。雌性通常交配一次，但少数会在产卵后重新交配，这与雄性的理想声学特征相结合，建议女性可以通过首先选择高质量的男性来最大限度地提高其繁殖成功率。这项研究有助于我们了解蝉和其他遭受捕食者选择压力的昆虫的性选择机制。