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First published online October 31, 2008
Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 3613-3618 (2008)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2008
doi: 10.1242/jeb.023143
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Hearing and spatial behavior in Gryllotalpa major Saussure (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae)

Daniel R. Howard1,2,*, Andrew C. Mason2 and Peggy S. M. Hill1

1 University of Tulsa, Faculty of Biological Sciences, 600 South College, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA
2 University of Toronto Scarborough, Department of Life Sciences, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada

* Author for correspondence (e-mail: dhoward{at}utsc.utoronto.ca)

Accepted 23 September 2008

The prairie mole cricket (Gryllotalpa major Saussure) is a rare orthopteran insect of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem of the south central USA. Populations are known to currently occupy fragmented prairie sites in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri, including The Nature Conservancy's Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in north central Oklahoma. Prairie mole cricket populations were surveyed at this site and at another site in Craig County, OK during the spring of 2005 and 2006, using the male cricket's acoustic call to locate advertising aggregations of males. Five males from one large aggregation were removed in a study to describe (1) the hearing thresholds across the call's range of frequencies, (2) the distances over which the higher harmonic components of the male's calls are potentially detectable, (3) the species' sensitivity to ultrasound and (4) the spatio-auditory dynamics of the prairie mole cricket lek. Results indicate that G. major has a bimodal pattern of frequency tuning, with hearing sensitivities greatest at the 2 kHz carrier frequency (41 dB SPL) and declining through the call's frequency range (84 dB at 10 kHz). A second sensitivity peak is evident in the ultrasound range at 25 kHz (62 dB SPL). Spatial analysis of G. major lek sites indicates that approximately 73% of males within the lek are spaced in such a way as to allow acoustic interaction at the species' carrier frequency, while any information in higher harmonic overtones in the call appears to be available only to nearest neighbors.

Key words: Gryllotalpidae, hearing, spacing, tallgrass prairie


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