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Behavioral sterility of hybrid males in acoustically communicating grasshoppers (Acrididae, Gomphocerinae)

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Abstract

The effectiveness of hybridization barriers determines whether two species remain reproductively isolated when their populations come into contact. We investigated acoustic mating signals and associated leg movements responsible for song creation of hybrids between the grasshopper species Chorthippus biguttulus and C. brunneus to study whether and how songs of male hybrids contribute to reproductive isolation between these sympatrically occurring species. Songs of F1, F2, and backcross hybrids were intermediate between those of both parental species in terms phrase number and duration. In contrast, species-specific syllable structure within phrases was largely lost in hybrids and was produced, if at all, in an irregular and imperfect manner. These divergences in inheritance of different song parameters are likely the result of incompatibility of neuronal networks that control stridulatory leg movements in hybrids. It is highly probable that songs of hybrid males are unattractive to females of either parental species because they are intermediate in terms of phrase duration and lack a clear syllable structure. Males of various hybrid types (F1, F2, and backcrosses) are behaviorally sterile because their songs fail to attract mates.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Angela Bruns, Maria Bauer, Dirk Berger, Otto von Helversen, and Wolfram Schulze for their help in performing recordings, catching animals and for many fruitful discussions. We thank Dirk Berger, Otto von Helversen, Matthias Hennig, Bernd Ronacher, Wolfram Schulze, Jana Ustinova, and Varja Vedenina and an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Dawn Frame kindly corrected our English. This study was supported by a grant from the DFG (SPP 1127) to Frieder Mayer and a grant from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg to Brigitte Gottsberger. The experiments complied with the “Principles of animal care,” publication No. 86-23, revised 1985 of the National Institute of Health, and were carried out in accordance with current German laws on animal care.

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  1. Department of Zoology II, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Staudtstrasse 5, 91058, Erlangen, Germany

    Brigitte Gottsberger & Frieder Mayer

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  1. Brigitte Gottsberger
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  2. Frieder Mayer
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Correspondence to Brigitte Gottsberger.

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Gottsberger, B., Mayer, F. Behavioral sterility of hybrid males in acoustically communicating grasshoppers (Acrididae, Gomphocerinae). J Comp Physiol A 193, 703–714 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-007-0225-y

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