Episode 125: A quiet place (with Dale Broder and Robin Tinghitella)

How do natural selection and sexual selection interact? What can observing adaptive radiation in the wild teach us about evolution? On this episode, we talk with Dale Broder, an Assistant Professor at American University, and Robin Tinghitella, an Associate Professor at the University of Denver. They study the Pacific field cricket, a fascinating organism that exemplifies both adaptive radiation and the interaction of natural selection and sexual selection. This species uses song for mate attraction, but the song also attracts Ormia ochracea, a fly that parasitizes the cricket. The fly recently invaded areas where the cricket is common and in response, some crickets evolved differentsongs and even silence. We talk with Robin and Dale about how their research team characterizes these cricket songs and the different wing morphologies that produce the songs. We also discuss the role of female preference (or lack thereof) in the evolution of different mating songs and how remarkably rapidly this song evolution occurred. This episode was supported by a grant to Dale and Robin from the National Science Foundation. Cover art: Keating Shahmehri.