| Abstract: | Female bushcrickets (Requena verticalis, Listroscelidinae, Tettigoniidae) show a preference between male calls that differ in three parameters, temporal structure, frequency and intensity. In a two-choice speaker situation they prefer louder calls, songs in which the upper part of the frequency spectrum occupies higher frequencies and calls with short chirps rather than those with longer chirps. In an experiment females were offered an alternative call while orienting to a model of their conspecific song. The alternative call was demonstrably preferred by females when presented in a paired-speaker trial. Two motivational states were identified where females moved slowly or quickly to a sound source. Movement patterns were associated with the form of stimulus and slow females were discriminatory of male calls while fast females were not. Slow females changed speaker preference when the alternate speaker broadcast a call model with the higher frequency peak or the song model with the shorter chirps. By comparison fast moving females only changed course when the alternative sound source was louder. |
