Male crickets are more likely to be interested in sex when they’re already running low on energy, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota. The cricket males that have depleted their energy reserves narrow the field of prospective mates in order to save as much as possible.
The Secret of Mating Sealsogens and Sexual Acts
Core to this study is the notion of ‘mating filters. Mating filters — are the object of sexual interest in their behavior organisms. When the mating filter of an organism narrows, this means that selecting mates is easier and becomes more focused on certain features or traits.
Previous research has demonstrated that same-sex sexual behavior (SSB) is widespread across the animal kingdom but some scientists have not included this information in their research. In this study, researchers surveyed the mating filters of male Pacific field crickets (shown above) to investigate how energy availability influences their attempts to mate with other males and females.
Crickets Go Female Hunting When Hungry
Researchers divided male crickets into two groups, with one group that was well-fed and another that was calorie-restricted. Both groups were afterwards allowed to interact with other male and female crickets, whereupon the researchers watched how they mated.
The take-home point: The crickets that were hungry and lacking in energy were much less interested in trying to mate with other males than the well-nourished crew. Nevertheless, they did not differ in the rate in which they tried to mate with females.
This indicates that hungry male crickets change the settings of their mating filter and begin to require females as a prerequisite for pairing up with them. This might actually be a strategy to save resources and maximise the probability of reproducing successfully under energy scarcity.
Conclusion
With the help of this study, we can now understand how energy level could be correlated to mating behaviors and preferences in male crickets. Thus, narrowing their mating filter to put more emphasis on a location of the filter such as females in poor resource environments is a strategic decision related to reproduction under constraints of environmental challenge. Insight into these adaptive behaviors in animals is highly informative about the manner in which organisms, including humans, cope with resource scarcity and reallocation of resources to prioritize essential activities.
