Do female striped ground crickets exhibit mate choice in the laboratory?

Sexual selection is a process in which differences in reproductive success are explained by females picking males based on specific traits. Such traits within species include color, size, and vocalization in males in order to attract females. Two mechanisms which contribute to the process of sexual selection are male-male competition and female choice. In this experiment, we focused on female choice in the cricket species Allonemobius socius. Previous research noted that successfully mated males in the field are larger (Fedorka and Mousseau, 2002). We tested this observation in a laboratory setting to see if size preference took place. Additionally we tested whether females preferred males of similar body size, called assortative mating. Males mated with to three randomly selected, unrelated virgin females, and each male was given two chances to mate with each female. Mating success was determined by females who laid eggs. Femur lengths were then taken from all individuals and used as a measure of body size. Males who successfully mated with one, two, or all three females did not differ significantly in body size. The body size of successfully mated females was not associated with the size of males. Females in our experiment neither preferred larger males nor mated assortatively. This result, which is inconsistent with that found in the field, could be due to our rearing conditions, or our indirect measure of mating success.