P-22 Phonotaxis in Male House Crickets, Acheta domesticus

Buller Hallway

Calls of male crickets convey both reproductive and territorial intentions of the caller. Reproductively mature conspecific females use these calls to judge the quality of the caller and walk toward the source of the call (positive phonotaxis). Males of a few cricket groups also exhibit positive phonotaxis though for different proximate reasons than those hypothesized for females. We placed male house crickets, Acheta domesticus, in a circular arena and presented them with electronically synthesized model calls that differed from each other only in syllable periods. Seven syllable periods that ranged from 30msec to 90msec were used in this setup. Our Results revealed that male responses to calls with a syllable period of 50 msec had an earlier commencement and were more consistent than those of any other syllable period. However, age led to a progressive change in male responses and eventually resulted in those that were more than a month old responding to different syllable periods indiscriminately. The tuning of male and female auditory systems to calls of similar temporal structure indicates a common underlying genetic basis.