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.