Males are selective too: mating, but not courtship, with sequential females influences choosiness in male field crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus)

Bateman, P.W. and Fleming, P.A. (2006) Males are selective too: mating, but not courtship, with sequential females influences choosiness in male field crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 59 (4). pp. 577-581.

Abstract

Mate choice experiments have generally focused on female choice; few have considered that males can also be selective. We examined courtship in male field crickets sequentially introduced to four females of differing size. Large (L) and small (S) females were introduced in order of either LSLS or SLSL. We demonstrate that naive males invest equally (courtship effort) in the first female they meet, regardless of her size, but show greater courtship effort when they subsequently encounter large compared with small females. Moreover, we demonstrate that males show this discriminatory behavior when they are permitted to mate with females (i.e. use a spermatophore) but are less choosy when the female is removed before spermatophore transfer.