@article{36187d54c5b948b8859b062cc11ba978,
title = "Signalling and phosphorus: correlations between mate signalling effort and body elemental composition in crickets",
abstract = "Recent findings in the field of ecological stoichiometry indicate that the relationships among key macronutrient elements (e.g. carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus) of organisms and their resources may underlie variation in fitness-conferring behaviours. The amount of phosphorus in an individual's body is often correlated with its rate of growth and reproduction, and low-phosphorus diets are known to reduce growth in a number of insect and crustacean herbivores. These findings suggest that the stoichiometric imbalance between organismal biomass requirements and the relative scarcity of nutrients in nature may underlie variation in condition-dependent behaviours. Here we investigate relationships between body elemental composition and long-distance mate attraction signals produced by male Texas field crickets, Gryllus texensis. Signalling was strongly and positively correlated with the percentage of phosphorus present in the body, but was not correlated with the percentage of carbon or nitrogen present. We also found evidence suggesting that callers and noncalling satellites differ in their elemental composition. To our knowledge, our data are the first to indicate that there may be a relationship between total body phosphorus content and a sexually selected trait. We present a preliminary evaluation of proximate hypotheses to account for the observed patterns. Our results indicate that a stoichiometric perspective may help us to understand the causes of variation in behaviour.",
author = "Bertram, {Susan M.} and Schade, {John D.} and James Elser",
note = "Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge R. Gorelick, P. Warren, W. Wagner, and three anonymous referees for their extensive and helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. We thank the people who assisted with cricket collection, care and maintenance on this project including A. Altamirano, M. Begay, A.C. Bostic, J. Clark, P. Eck, J.S. Johnson, S.X. Orozco and S. Williams. J. Crutchfield and L. Gilbert of the Brackenridge Field Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin provided space and facilities during collections. L. Johnson designed the electronic acoustic recording equipment; it was built by W. Coleman and tested by L. Johnson. A.C. Bostic conducted the elemental analyses under the guidance and mentorship of J.D.S. M. Kyle helped with training for analysis of cricket elemental composition. A National Science Foundation grant (NSF IBN 0131728) to S.B. provided the main financial support for this research. Several of the undergraduate students who helped to rear crickets and measure morphological, developmental and stoichiometric traits were supported by NSF-Research Experience for Undergraduates, NSF-Undergraduate Mentoring in Environmental Biology fellowships, National Institutes of Health Minority Access to Research Careers (NIH MARC) traineeships, and Arizona State University sponsored Pre-MARC fellowships. J.D.S. and J.J.E. were supported by the NSF-Integrated Research Challenges in Environmental Biology, Biological Stoichiometry from Genes to Ecosystems project (NSF IBN 997704). Copyright: Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "2006",
month = oct,
doi = "10.1016/j.anbehav.2006.02.012",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "72",
pages = "899--907",
journal = "Animal Behaviour",
issn = "0003-3472",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
number = "4",
}