Data from: Lack of perceived sperm competition risk increases post-copulatory song in Pacific field crickets
Data files
Jul 18, 2025 version files 23.89 KB
Abstract
Mate guarding enables males to bias fertilization, increase their share of paternity, and thereby enhance reproductive success. When the risk of sperm competition is high, males may benefit from investing more in guarding behaviors. While some species physically restrain females during guarding, others use more passive tactics. Male Pacific field crickets (Teleogryllus oceanicus) sing after mating to entice females to stay, even though they cannot mate again immediately. Post-copulatory song effectively keeps females in proximity, prolongs spermatophore attachment, and ultimately enhances male reproductive success. We investigated whether cues about the risk of sperm competition determine male investment in post-copulatory song. Additionally, we studied whether hearing cricket calls either during rearing or immediately before mating modified the listeners' behavior. Males exposed to acoustic cues of male competitors during rearing or immediately before mating were not more likely to sing post-copulatory songs. However, among those males that did sing post-copulatory songs, those exposed to song during rearing had a greater latency to begin singing and overall spent less time singing post-copulation than males exposed to silence. These findings suggest that early-life social environments shape long-term mating strategies, while immediate cues have limited influence on post-copulatory mate guarding behavior.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.ncjsxkt7r
Description of the data and file structure
We conducted a controlled laboratory experiment to investigate whether male Pacific field crickets (Teleogryllus oceanicus) adjust their post-copulatory mate guarding behavior in response to acoustic cues of sperm competition. Using a 2×2 factorial design, we manipulated both the early-life (rearing) and immediate acoustic environments by exposing males to either male calling song or silence. We then measured whether males produced post-copulatory song following mating, as well as the timing and duration of their singing behavior. These efforts aimed to assess how social acoustic environments shape long-term mating strategies and investment in mate guarding.
Files and variables
File: Lack_of_perceived_sperm_competition_risk_increases_post-copulatory_song_in_Pacific_field_crickets.xlsx
Description: This dataset contains behavioral and treatment data from an experiment investigating how perceived sperm competition risk, via acoustic exposure, affects post-copulatory singing behavior in male Teleogryllus oceanicus. Males were exposed to combinations of song or silence during both their developmental (rearing) period and immediately prior to mating. The dataset includes whether each male sang after mating, how long it took to begin singing, total duration of song, proximity of females post-mating, spermatophore removal, and body size measurements. These data were used to test whether acoustic cues influence male mate guarding strategies. Missing data represented as NA.
Variables
- ID = the cricket identification number
- Rearing = the developmental treatment of song or no song exposure
- Immediate 1-hour treatment period before the trial of song or no song exposure
- GROUP = the combined rearing and immediate exposures for the individual
- Isolation Date = the day the cricket was removed from the colony and put in a treatment in a solitary cup
- Eclosion Date = the day the cricket reached maturity
- Trial Date = the day the cricket was used for the experiment
- Female number = the number of females (1-3) it took for a male to successfully mate
- Time to mate (mins) = the amount of time it took the male to mate with and attach a spermatophore to the female
- Pronotum M (mm) = male size
- Pronotum F (mm) = female size
- PostcopSong = whether or not thsaysale say after mating
- Time Spent Singing (secs) = total length of post-copulatory song
- Time to PostcopSong (secs) = the time passed between spermatophore attachment to song
- Location of F PostcopSong (mm) = distance of female when post-copulatory song was first produced
- Time Female Proximity (<50 mm) (secs) = total time female spent within 1 body length of the guarding male
- Time Spermatophore Removal (secs) = total time until the female removed the spermatophore
- Spermatophore Retention (Y/N) = whether or not the female remained attached to the female or not
Code/software
The primary dataset is provided as a .xlsx file and can be viewed using free software such as LibreOffice Calc (version 6.0 or later), Google Sheets, or Microsoft Excel. Statistical analyses were conducted using R (version 4.1.2), a free and open-source environment for data analysis.
We used the following R packages:
readxl(1.3.1) – for importing Excel datadplyr(1.0.7) – for data manipulationggplot2(3.3.5) – for data visualizationcar– for testing model assumptionsstats– for logistic regression and ANOVA
Access information
Other publicly accessible locations of the data:
- NA
Data was derived from the following sources:
- NA