Predation risk of mate searching in crickets

We estimated relative predation risk experienced in natural populations of male and female crickets that were communicating and not communicating. We did this by quantifying predation risk as a probability of mortality in the context of acoustic communication in a tree cricket, <i>Oecanthus henryi</i> from its ecologically relevant predator, a lynx spider, <i>Peucetia viridans</i>. Probability of mortality was quantified by partitioning it into three spatial components at which these crickets and spiders interact, using a combination of extensive field observations and manipulative experiments in a semi-natural setup. These data are a binary response of prey either succeeding (1) or failing (0) to avoid the predator at each spatial scale. Predation risk was estimated as a product of these probabilities.

本研究针对处于发声交流与非发声交流状态下的雌雄蟋蟀自然种群，估算其经历的相对捕食风险。研究以树蟋科物种亨利树蟋（Oecanthus henryi）及其生态相关的天敌绿猫蛛（Peucetia viridans）为对象，将声学交流情境下的致死概率作为捕食风险的量化依据。本研究通过大量野外观测结合半自然实验装置开展的操控性实验，将蟋蟀与蜘蛛的相互作用过程划分为三个空间维度，以此完成致死概率的量化。本数据集包含各空间尺度下猎物成功躲避（标记为1）或未成功躲避（标记为0）捕食者的二分类响应结果。最终捕食风险以各空间维度概率的乘积形式进行估算。