DOI: 10.5061/dryad.ncjsxkt7r
title: Data from: Lack of perceived sperm competition risk increases post-copulatory song in Pacific field crickets

description: Mate guarding enables males to bias fertilization, increase their share of
 paternity, and thereby enhance reproductive success. When the risk of
 sperm competition is high, males may benefit from investing more in
 guarding behaviors. While some species physically restrain females during
 guarding, others use more passive tactics. Male Pacific field crickets
 (Teleogryllus oceanicus) sing after mating to entice females to stay, even
 though they cannot mate again immediately. Post-copulatory song
 effectively keeps females in proximity, prolongs spermatophore attachment,
 and ultimately enhances male reproductive success. We investigated whether
 cues about the risk of sperm competition determine male investment in
 post-copulatory song. Additionally, we studied whether hearing
 cricket calls either during rearing or immediately before mating modified
 the listeners' behavior. Males exposed to acoustic cues of male
 competitors during rearing or immediately before mating were not more
 likely to sing post-copulatory songs. However, among those males that did
 sing post-copulatory songs, those exposed to song during rearing had a
 greater latency to begin singing and overall spent less time singing
 post-copulation than males exposed to silence. These findings suggest that
 early-life social environments shape long-term mating strategies, while
 immediate cues have limited influence on post-copulatory mate guarding
 behavior.
description: # Lack of perceived sperm competition risk increases post-copulatory song
 in Pacific field crickets Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.ncjsxkt7r](10.5061/dryad.ncjsxkt7r) ## Description of the
 data and file structure We conducted a controlled laboratory experiment to
 investigate whether male Pacific field crickets (*Teleogryllus oceanicus*)
 adjust their post-copulatory mate guarding behavior in response to
 acoustic cues of sperm competition. Using a 2×2 factorial design, we
 manipulated both the early-life (rearing) and immediate acoustic
 environments by exposing males to either male calling song or silence. We
 then measured whether males produced post-copulatory song following
 mating, as well as the timing and duration of their singing behavior.
 These efforts aimed to assess how social acoustic environments shape
 long-term mating strategies and investment in mate guarding. ### Files and
 variables #### File:
 Lack_of_perceived_sperm_competition_risk_increases_post-copulatory_song_in_Pacific_field_crickets.xlsx **Description:** This dataset contains behavioral and treatment data from an experiment investigating how perceived sperm competition risk, via acoustic exposure, affects post-copulatory singing behavior in male *Teleogryllus oceanicus*. Males were exposed to combinations of song or silence during both their developmental (rearing) period and immediately prior to mating. The dataset includes whether each male sang after mating, how long it took to begin singing, total duration of song, proximity of females post-mating, spermatophore removal, and body size measurements. These data were used to test whether acoustic cues influence male mate guarding strategies. Missing data represented as NA. ##### Variables * ID = the cricket identification number * Rearing = the developmental treatment of song or no song exposure * Immediate 1-hour treatment period before the trial of song or no song exposure * GROUP = the combined rearing and immediate exposures for the individual * Isolation Date = the day the cricket was removed from the colony and put in a treatment in a solitary cup * Eclosion Date = the day the cricket reached maturity * Trial Date = the day the cricket was used for the experiment * Female number = the number of females (1-3) it took for a male to successfully mate  * Time to mate (mins) = the amount of time it took the male to mate with and attach a spermatophore to the female * Pronotum M (mm) = male size * Pronotum F (mm) = female size * PostcopSong = whether or not thsaysale say after mating * Time Spent Singing (secs) = total length of post-copulatory song * Time to PostcopSong (secs) = the time passed between spermatophore attachment to song * Location of F PostcopSong (mm) = distance of female when post-copulatory song was first produced * Time Female Proximity (&lt;50 mm) (secs) = total time female spent within 1 body length of the guarding male * Time Spermatophore Removal (secs) = total time until the female removed the spermatophore  * Spermatophore Retention (Y/N) = whether or not the female remained attached to the female or not ## Code/software The primary dataset is provided as a `.xlsx` file and can be viewed using free software such as LibreOffice Calc (version 6.0 or later), Google Sheets, or Microsoft Excel. Statistical analyses were conducted using R (version 4.1.2), a free and open-source environment for data analysis. We used the following R packages: * `readxl` (1.3.1) – for importing Excel data * `dplyr` (1.0.7) – for data manipulation * `ggplot2` (3.3.5) – for data visualization * `car` – for testing model assumptions * `stats` – for logistic regression and ANOVA ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * NA Data was derived from the following sources: * NA