Impact of low sperm competition on male reproductive trait allometries in a bush-cricket

Abstract

Background: Studying reproductive trait allometries can help to understand optimal male investment strategies under sexual selection. In promiscuous mating systems, studies across several taxa suggest that testes allometry is usually positive, presumably due to strong selection on sperm numbers through intense sperm competition. Here, we investigated testes allometry in a bush-cricket species, Metaplastes ornatus, in which females mate promiscuously, but where sperm removal behaviour by males likely drastically reduces realised sperm competition level. Results: As hypothesised, we found evidence for negative testes allometry and hence a fundamentally different male investment strategy compared to species under intense sperm competition. In addition, the mean relative testes size of M. ornatus was small compared to other species of bush-crickets. Surprisingly, the spermatophore gland, a potential alternative trait that males could invest in instead of testes, also did not show positive allometry, but was approximately isometric. We further observed the expected pattern of negative allometry for the male morphological structure responsible for sperm removal in this species, the subgenital plate, supporting the one-size-fits-all hypothesis for intromittent genitalia. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the evolution of sperm removal behaviour in M. ornatus was a key adaptation for avoiding sperm competition, with important consequences for reproductive trait allometries. Nevertheless, they also imply that it does not pay for larger males to invest disproportionately in nuptial gift production in this species.