Forest litter crickets prefer higher substrate moisture for oviposition: Evidence from field and lab experiments

PLoS One. 2017 Oct 4;12(10):e0185800. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185800. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

For insects, choosing a favorable oviposition site is a type of parental care, as far as it increases the fitness of its offspring. Niche theory predicts that crickets should show a bell-shaped oviposition response to substrate moisture. However, lab experiments with mole crickets showed a linear oviposition response to substrate moisture. Studies with the house cricket Acheta domesticus also showed a linear juvenile body growth response to water availability, thus adult ovipositing females should respond positively to substrate moisture. We used a field experiment to evaluate the relationship between oviposition preference and substrate moisture in forest litter-dwelling cricket species. We also evaluated oviposition responses to substrate moisture level in Ubiquepuella telytokous, the most abundant litter cricket species in our study area, using a laboratory study. We offered cotton substrate for oviposition which varied in substrate moisture level from zero (i.e., dry) to maximum water absorption capacity. We used two complementary metrics to evaluate oviposition preference: (i) presence or absence of eggs in each sampling unit as binary response variable, and (ii) number of eggs oviposited per sampling unit as count response variable. To test for non-linear responses, we adjusted generalized additive models (GAMM) with mixed effects. We found that both cricket oviposition probability and effort (i.e., number of eggs laid) increased linearly with substrate moisture in the field experiment, and for U. telytokous in the lab experiment. We discarded any non-linear responses. Our results demonstrate the importance of substrate moisture as an ecological niche dimension for litter crickets. This work bolsters knowledge of litter cricket life history association with moisture, and suggests that litter crickets may be particularly threatened by changes in climate that favor habitat drying.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Female
  • Gryllidae / physiology*
  • Oviposition*

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the following grants: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (CRA-APQ-01478-11; received by Dr Carlos Frankl Sperber); CCBS UNIOESTE (11/2017; received by Dr Neucir Szinwelski); Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (BR) (received by Fernando de Farias-Martins); Sistema Nacional de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade (SISBIOTA-BR, CNPQ) (5653360/2010-0); Sistema Nacional de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade (SISBIOTA-BR-FAPEMIG) (CRA-APQ-0003-11); Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (BR) (310032/2015-6; received by Dr Carlos Frankl Sperber); Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (BPD-00196-12; received by Dr Neucir Szinwelski); and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Portaria 367/VICE-EPE/2014; received by Dr Jennifer Ann Breaux). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.