Anthropogenic noise disrupts mate choice behaviors in female Gryllus bimaculatus

By assessing the sexual signals produced by conspecifics, individuals can
make informed decisions on the best choice of mate, which can lead to
reproductive fitness benefits. However, these communication systems are
often vulnerable to disruption by conflicting with stimuli present in the
environment. Anthropogenic noise may act as one such disruptive stimulus,
leading to inefficient mate choice decisions, and thus reductions to an
animal’s fitness. In this study, the mate choice behaviors of female
Gryllus bimaculatus were tested when presented with artificial male
courtship songs of differing ‘quality’ under different acoustic
conditions. In ambient noise conditions, females significantly preferred
mates paired with higher quality songs, indicated by increased mating
rates and reduced latency to mate. However, this mate selection pattern
was disrupted in both traffic and white noise conditions. Additionally,
‘high quality’ courtship songs had an increased mounting latency in
traffic and white noise conditions, when compared to ambient noise
conditions. Making non-optimal mating decisions, such as the ones seen
here, can lead to deleterious fitness consequences, alter population
dynamics and weaken sexual selection, unless individuals adapt to cope
with anthropogenic interference.