Does acoustic environment modify boldness and related life-history traits in field cricket nymphs?

Abstract

Between-individual differences in personality and life-history traits can arise from both genetic and environmental factors, with the latter possibly reflecting contrasting individual experiences during ontogeny. It is yet unclear how the acoustic environment may affect the development of boldness and related life-history traits such as growth rate, maturation age and longevity in species that normally rely on acoustic cues to adjust their behaviours. We studied if long-term exposure of field cricket Gryllus integer nymphs to traffic noise or acoustic conspecific signalling would affect the level or repeatability of boldness or life history traits. An integrative boldness score was statistically significantly repeatable in control and cricket sound groups, but not in the traffic noise group. However, our data did not show any effect of acoustic treatment on individual boldness. Acoustic treatments had no effects on life-history traits, either. Future studies are needed to confirm whether the acoustic environment could affect the development of personality and behavioural consistency.