Older male crickets attract more females—but have less sex

MAY 24, 2019

by University of Exeter

Older male crickets are better at getting females to live with them—but they mate less than younger rivals once they find a partner.

Meanwhile younger males have a harder time enticing females back to their burrows—but more mating happens if they succeed.

University of Exeter scientists studied field crickets to see if a male's age affected how attractive females found them.

"Females choose mates to get the best genes for their offspring," said Dr. Rolando Rodríguez-Muñoz of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

"It's possible that the oldest males have the best genes because they've shown they can live for a long time.¬

"On the other hand, females might favour younger males whose sperm have not accumulated possibly harmful mutations that will be passed on to offspring.

Continued

Cricket's summer song making a comeback

By Helen BriggsBBC News

29 July 2017

The cheep, cheep, cheep of a cricket in the grass is the quintessential sound of summer.

As I crunch over heathland in search of the elusive insect, the song fills the air, as if conjured up by a magician.

My companion, Mike Coates, the warden here at RSPB Farnham Heath, beams with delight.

Earlier, before setting out for the reserve, he'd warned me that the insects are rare, and might not perform on cue.

"It's not so much looking, we're going to be listening mostly for the sound of male field crickets chirruping in order to attract a mate," he explained, over a mug of tea in the staff portacabin.

"It's just a brilliant noise. It's like summer translated into sound - it's fantastic."

Continued  

Sound of crickets 'could become a thing of the past'

By Helen Briggs BBC News

10 February 2017

The first comprehensive assessment of Europe's crickets and grasshoppers has found that more than a quarter of species are being driven to extinction.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the insect group is the most threatened of those assessed so far in Europe. 

Europe harbours more than 1,000 species of grasshopper and cricket. 

If we don't act now the sound of crickets could become a thing of the past, said the IUCN.

Crickets, bush crickets and grasshoppers - a group known as Orthoptera - live on grassland.

They are an important food source for birds and reptiles, and their decline could affect entire ecosystems. 

Their habitat is being lost due to wildfires, intensive agriculture and tourism development.

Jean-Christophe Vié, deputy director, IUCN Global Species Programme, said to bring these species back from the brink of extinction, more needs to be done to protect and restore their habitats.

"This can be done through sustainable grassland management using traditional agricultural practices, for example," he said. 

"If we do not act now, the sound of crickets in European grasslands could soon become a thing of the past."

The assessment took place over two years and involved more than 150 scientists.

Axel Hochkirch is chair of the IUCN invertebrate conservation sub-committee and lead author of the report.

Continued 

Cricket's chirp may have 'predatory roots'

By Victoria Gill

Science reporter, BBC News

10 December 2015 

The song of the male Angnotecous obscurus cricket is of such a high frequency that it is difficult to hear

Scientists have discovered that the chirps of some crickets could be a cunning way to "startle" potential mates into revealing their location.

The Dartmouth College team discovered the insects' communication system and studied females' reactions to the males' songs.

They say the call is likely to have evolved from males impersonating hunting bats and startling females.

Females' shuddering response appears to allow males to locate a mate.

Close examination of females' nervous systems suggested that this shudder evolved from a startle reflex, the researchers say.

The findings are published in the journal Current Biology.

Lead researcher Prof Hannah ter Hofstede investigated this unusual insect duet after a colleague presented some recordings of the insects' particularly high frequency chirps.

"It struck me as very strange that these crickets would use such high frequencies for mating purposes," the scientists said.

Other cricket species avoid sounds at these frequencies, which are similar to the sounds that bats make when navigating and hunting.

Escape behaviour

Prof ter Hofstede used playback experiments - playing males' songs through speakers - to test females' reaction to the high, bat-like chirps.

"I expected the females to walk to the speaker, because this is the usual behaviour for female crickets, but they did not do this - [they instead] made a small jerking motion after each male call," she explained.

"From many observations of males and females together, I noticed that it was always the male walking to the female when she produced these vibrational signals."

Read on ...

Canada: 'Cricket compost box' tackles food problem

28th August 2014 

A Canadian university student seems to have come up with a novel way to grow his own food and compost his rubbish at the same time - using crickets.

Jakub Dzamba's invention allows you to raise and eat your own batch of crickets every two months, CBC news reports. He keeps his crickets in a clear plastic box in his kitchen, feeding them scraps of rubbish that might otherwise go onto a compost heap. The crickets are harvested by putting them in the freezer, where Dzamba says they are "euthanised" and can be cooked like any other frozen food.

Dzamba is introducing his home cricket farms at Montreal's Eating Innovation Conference, which focuses on entomophagy - or eating insects. Eating insects wasn't easy at first, he says. "You kill bugs all the time, but when you raise them and have them on your desk for two months, I just didn't have the heart to put them in the fridge and kind of euthanise them." But he's now very enthusiastic about the idea. "I think it can make the world a better place," he says.

Read on ...

There's more than one way to silence a cricket: Co-evolution of crickets who lost their chirp

Date:

May 29, 2014

Source:

Cell Press

Summary:

For most of us, crickets are probably most recognizable by the distinctive chirping sounds males make with their wings to lure females. But some crickets living on the islands of Hawaii have effectively lost their instruments and don't make their music anymore. Now researchers report that crickets living on different islands quieted their wings in different ways at almost the same time.

Continued

Guess What Dolphins and Crickets Have in Common

Dolphins and crickets might have more in common than you think.

A large group of insects that includes crickets and katydids is believed to share a hearing feature with toothed whales like dolphins, according to a new study.

For insects in the Ensifera group, sound is known to be detected by ear drums on the front legs. Researchers looking at the Auckland tree weta, a species in this group, then discovered that noise passes through a sound-transmitting lipid (a compound that includes oils and fats) to get to the insect's hearing organs.

Continued:  http://www.livescience.com/25571-dolphins-crickets-share-hearing-hardware.html

Young cricket characters shaped by 'song'

The experiences of youth can change the adult personalities of crickets, a new study has found.

Scientists discovered that juvenile males that did not hear a cricket chorus while young grew into more aggressive adults.

It suggests that the animals can pick up behavioural traits while young which then become fixed in adulthood.

The scientists believe that personality may play a crucial role in ecology and evolution.

The findings of the team from the University of California, Davis, US are published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

In conducting the experiment the team captured juvenile field crickets that had not yet developed a tympanum, the equivalent to an ear, which grows on the cricket's front legs.

"We isolated them all effectively before any of them could hear anything," said lead author Nicholas DiRienzo.

While one group of crickets were reared in silence, another were played a looped recording of five calling males.

"In the sound treatment there was a chorus of five different crickets playing back, calling, to mimic just what you would hear on a summer night, lots of different crickets calling and singing."

The silence was similar to the conditions experienced by juveniles hatching in spring when the cricket population tends to be at a low density, and hence quieter. Any juveniles born later tend to find a denser population of crickets, which is louder.

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19248230

Tree Cricket's Song in Tune with the Temperature

Among many male crickets, larger body size means a lower pitched song and more attention from the lady crickets. But male tree crickets break this rule: The pitch of their song changes with temperature. 

The basic mechanics are straightforward, according to new research that explores tree crickets' unusual song. Tree crickets have more elongated wings than other species, particularly field crickets, and tree crickets vibrate their entire wing when they call, rather than just part of it, as other crickets do.

But the discovery points to another, trickier question: Why?

The variability in male tree crickets' call creates a problem. Normally, female crickets find their mates by tuning into the precise frequency at which the males broadcast their chirpy song, tuning out other noise. But if males' calls aren't finely tuned, how do females home in on them?

Continued:  http://www.livescience.com/19992-tree-cricket-mating-calls.html

The Worcestershire field filled with a million crickets

Five grasshoppers and crickets per square metre

August 2011: Wildlife experts estimate that at least 340kg of grasshoppers and crickets are living in one field of a Worcestershire nature reserve.

CRICKET GROUND: Roesel's bush crickets are among those that have been found in the nature reserve
Volunteers have counted an average of five grasshoppers and crickets per square metre in a field at Hill Court Farm nature reserve near Longdon in the south of the county. Based on this count, this one field alone, at more than 22 hectares in size, is home to over 1,136,500 grasshoppers and crickets.


Rob Allen, conservation officer for the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust which owns the nature reserve, said: ‘When we bought the reserve ten years ago the land was being used as an intensive dairy and arable farm. We've been working hard to recreate grazing marshes, wetlands and wildlife-friendly farmland.

‘Some of the species we're trying to encourage to return to the land are seriously affected by human disturbance so the nature reserve isn't generally open to the public.

‘We've recently had reports of many grassland insects on the reserve - some rarities as well as these fantastic numbers of grasshoppers and crickets.'

Some newcomers to the county
‘We think that an average grasshopper weighs around 300mg, crickets a little more. That equates to more than 340kg in just one field.'

Among the several species of grasshoppers and crickets found have been Roesel's bush cricket and long-winged coneheads. These are both relative newcomers to the county, having travelled north from the continent in the last couple of decades.


Another very new species to the county is Corizus hyoscyami. This red and black bug is usually found in sandy habitats of southern England but is now regularly being found inland, although few have been recorded in Worcestershire.

NEWCOMER: The Corizus hyoscyami

Rob continued: ‘We've also recently had a record of a six-belted clearwing moth. These scarce but attractive insects are associated with bird's-foot trefoil, one of their foodplants. The pupae live underground among the roots of the plant and need large areas of uncultivated flower-rich grassland.

‘The insect life found here is very promising for the future; a healthy insect population is part and parcel of a diverse ecosystem and well-functioning food-chain.'

'Monster' of insect world, the great green cricket, spotted for first time in region

Thursday, August 19, 2010

A MONSTER of the insect world has been found lurking in our region for the first time.

The discovery of the great green bush cricket on wasteland in west Hull is exciting naturalists across East Yorkshire.

Naturalist Barry Warrington spotted the rare green insect while walking on a footpath along the Humber bank.

He managed to photograph the unusual male cricket, which has ears on its front legs, before it slunk back into the undergrowth.

The great green, which grows up to three inches long, has been seen only once previously in Yorkshire.

Mr Warrington, 32, of Buttfield Road, Hessle, said: "I was looking for insects when I made this discovery.

"I was on wasteland next to a footpath on the Humber bank trying to find a migrant hawker dragonfly.

"I was peering into a bush when I noticed a different shade of green, which turned out to be a huge cricket.

"I was gob-smacked. I had never seen anything like it before."

Accountant Mr Warrington, a keen wildlife photographer, managed to snap the striking insect.

He said: "It was pure luck I found it, but at the time I didn't know exactly what I had found.

"I showed the pictures to experts, who identified it as the great green bush cricket, which is usually seen only in the south.

"It is only just beginning to sink in how significant this discovery is."

The first time the great green was spotted in the county was in Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire last year.

Mr Warrington also found another rare insect, a speckled bush cricket, in the same area of west Hull this year.

He said: "I can't believe I found two rare crickets in such a short space of time.

"But seeing the male great green was really thrilling because it is Britain's biggest insect and a real monster."

Experts who study insects, called entomologists, have also been excited by his unusual discoveries.

Entomologist Dr David Chesmore, of York University, said: "It is exciting a great green bush cricket has been seen in Yorkshire for only the second time.

"It would be even more exciting if we could discover if this particular male was breeding where it was found."

Dr Chesmore was also impressed with Mr Warrington's discovery of a speckled bush cricket. He said: "The only previously recorded sighting of a speckled in Yorkshire was at Middleton-on-the-Wolds, near Driffield, in 1925.

"The obvious answer for this would be climate change, but the crickets could also have arrived on a vehicle travelling up from the south.

"We will be keeping a close eye on the situation because it would be brilliant if both species had started to breed in Yorkshire."

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/news/Wildlife-photographer-spot-rare-great-green-bush-cricket-East-Yorkshire/article-2545916-detail/article.html

Crickets and grasshoppers act as climate detectives

Crickets and grasshoppers are proving to be valuable beacons of climate change in Britain. Warming temperatures and improved food and breeding conditions are driving the creatures to move into new, previously unfavourable, regions.

Although more often associated with Mediterranean countries, crickets and grasshoppers have been living in Britain for many years - the earliest recorded sightings date back to the 17th century. In recent decades large numbers of the insects, which belong to a group known as Orthoptera, have been arriving on our shores and spreading rapidly.

Scientists are now asking the British public to help them track the spread of these tiny climate detectives by recording sightings of them on a new monitoring scheme website.

'Crickets and grasshoppers are good indicators of climate change and we have been monitoring them since the 1960s, but we can only track changes if people tell us what they see,' explained Björn Beckmann from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. 'We have many volunteers who photograph and record the species they find, but we are hoping to expand the record by involving the public more. We've done the same with ladybird monitoring and that has been very successful.'

'Grasshoppers and crickets are ideal for the project because they are amongst the most appealing of insects and can be easily identified by the public', added Beckmann.

Rare species, such as the long-winged conehead that were once restricted to just a few sites on the far south-east coast, can be found as far north as Leicestershire. Similarly the Roesel's bush cricket, largely found in the Thames and Solent Estuaries during the last century, is now seen across southern and central Britain. Recent arrivals, such as the Southern Oak bush cricket, are starting to populate the south-east coastal region.

Anyone wanting to help the scientists can record their sightings and photographs of grasshoppers and crickets on the Orthoptera Recording Scheme website.

http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=476

Sound of crickets spreads in Britain

Crickets, the chirping insects more typically associated with the Mediterranean, are spreading across the British countryside.








Entomologists are reporting that crickets are spreading across the country thanks to the warming climate, making their distinctive mating call a common sound.



Rare species that were once restricted to just a few southern coastal regions in England have now become widespread as food and breeding conditions have improved.





Crickets such as the Long-Winged Cone-Head, which was one of the rarest in Britain 20 years ago found only in a handful of sites on the far south east coast, have extended as far north as Leicestershire and west into Cornwall.



The Roesel's Bush Cricket, previously confined to a few grasslands in estuaries on the south east of England have now become common around the Thames, The Solent and the Humber.
Other species that had never been recorded in Britain before, such as the Southern Oak Bush Cricket, have appeared for the first time.



Dr Peter Sutton, national recording scheme organiser for orthoptera and allied species for the Biological Records Centre, said: "Many cricket and grasshopper species are enjoying a meteoric rise here in the UK.



"Since the 1980s some of these species have spread rapidly as the climate has become more favourable.



"As the temperature in the UK has moved up, different habitat types have become accessible to these species as it has become warm enough for the eggs to mature. This year has been a perfect year.



"While last year was fairly catastrophic because of the wet weather and we had very low sighting reports, many crickets can account for bad summers by having eggs that take two to three years to hatch so they can sit out the bad years.



"We are expecting to see many of these species will have expanded their ranges even further this year."



Crickets, which are part of a group of insects known as orthoptera, are more commonly found in warmer climates where they can find the higher temperatures they need for their eggs to mature.



Male crickets are famous for their distinctive mating call, known as chirping, which they produce by their wings together. Ridges along a thick rib on the left forewing produce the noise when it is scraped across the edge of the right forewing.



Each species produces a unique call from a series of low clicks to a high pitch trill.



Bjorn Beckmann, from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, has found that 11 species of orthoptera have expanded their range since 1990.



The most successful is the Long-Winged Cone-Head, Conocephalus discolour, which first appeared on mainland Britain in 1945 but was considered a rare species living just five miles from the south east coast until it began spreading at the end of the 1980s.



It has now managed to spread more than 130 miles to the north and is found commonly on road verges.



The Short-Winged Cone-Head, Conocephalus dorsalis, which is less mobile than its long-winged relative, was also only found along the south coast 30 years ago, has also extended its range onto road verges, railway sidings and scrublands as far north as Cumbria.



House crickets, which in the past could only survive indoors protected from the elements, are also on the increase with large outdoor colonies appearing in landfill sites where they obtain heat from the decomposing waste.



One notable colony was found on a landfill site near Cambridge.



It is thought that decreasing summer rainfall and rising temperatures are mainly responsible for the spread of the insects.



Brian Eversham, conservation director for the Wildlife Trust in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, said: "Crickets have spread very dramatically – far more than any other insect in Britain.



"The Long-Winged Cone-Head is now one of the most common crickets in Cambridgeshire. I was on a reserve in Bedfordshire this week and we could hear crickets singing wherever we went.



"The countryside is probably a lot noisier now than it was 10 years ago as a result."

The Long-Winged Cone-Head, one of the rarest in Britain 20 years ago found only in a handful of sites on the far south east coast, has extended as far north as Leicestershire and west into Cornwall.

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/5740791/Sound-of-crickets-spreads-in-Britain.html