Positive relationship between signalling time and flight capability in the texas field cricket, Gryllus texensis

A trade-off between dispersal ability and reproduction is generally thought to explain the persistence of wing dimorphism in insects, although this trade-off has received minimal attention in male insects. Research on male sand cricket, Gryllus firmus, supports the trade-off hypothesis insofar as flight capable cricket's spend significantly less time signalling for potential mates than their flightless counterparts. By contrast, here I show that this expected trade-off between signalling time and wing dimorphism does not exist in a male congener, the Texas field cricket (Gryllus texensis). In G. texensis, flight capable males signal twice as often as flightless males. Thus, unless male G. texensis express trade-offs between dispersal ability and other, presently unmeasured components of reproduction, the trade-off hypothesis may not explain the persistence of wing dimorphism in all male insects.