Do favored cuticular hydrocarbon profiles signal fertility? Analysis of Gryllus firmus and Gryllus pennsylvanicus

Previous studies suggest that the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of Gryllus firmus and G. pennsylvanicus are sexually dimorphic: males have a relatively homogenous and simple profile, whereas females are more variable, and some individuals resemble the profile of males (“male-like” females). Previous studies have shown that males in captivity prefer females with a more male-like profile, mating with them more promptly. Here, we used both species to test whether cuticular hydrocarbons serve as signal of female fertility and whether females with a male-like cuticular hydrocarbon profile mate more often in the field. We report on the number of sires for field-caught females and demonstrate that male-like females are not more fertile and do not mate more often in the wild. We also show that the allocation of sperm does not seem to follow a fair raffle; a few males dominate the brood composition of wild-caught mated females.

Methods
Field collected previously mated females of two species. Females oviposit in lab. Offpspring are scored with 7 microsatellites to predict number of fathers in a brood (48 offspring per brood). We use COLONY (Jones & Wang, 2010) to calculate number of fathers per brood.  

We test if females with different cuticular hydrocarbon profiles produce a different number of offspring (good genes) or if certain females mate more often in the field.