Wing Morphometric Analysis of a Novel Sexual Signal in Pacific Field Crickets
Recently, my lab discovered a newly evolved and novel cricket song in Pacific field crickets (Teleogryllus oceanicus). The song superficially sounds like a cat purring and was first discovered on Molokai, Hawaii. Specialized structures on the male’s wings are used to produce these songs however, this novel purring signal has not yet been linked to wing morphology. Preliminary observations suggest that some aspects of the purring song and wing morphology differ among populations. As a first step to understanding this novel mating signal, acoustic and morphologic data will be related to examine whether components of the purring song differ among populations and if these differences can be explained by wing morphology. The recording of purring songs and the subsequent analysis has already been completed. The song analysis shows that while the temporal patterns are similar, there is a great deal of variation in the frequency and pitch of the song among populations. This suggests that there will be differences in wing morphology. Landmarking of the relevant wing traits is currently underway and initial observations suggest that there is some variation in wing morphology.
