Acoustical Behavior and Sexual Success in the Caribbean Fruit Fly, Anastrepha suspensa (Loew) (Diptera: Tephritidae)

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Abstract
Male Anastrepha suspensa (Loew) produce two female-directed sounds, the calling and precopulatory songs. Aspects of these were correlated to factors thought important in male sexual success and compared in males that copulated and males that failed to mate. Both sounds became more intense with male size. Larger males tended to have calling songs of lower fundamental frequency, but frequency of precopulatory songs and size was uncorrelated. The calling song's fundamental frequency bandwidth was broader in unsuccessful flies, perhaps reflecting physical disability. Precopulatory songsmay be the last acoustic opportunity for males to demonstrate their “quality” and receive further cooperation from females they have mounted. Unsuccessful precopulatory songs were not as loud and had a broader bandwidth than successful songs. Greater distortion in unsuccessful songs appeared to be due to female movement during rejection. The longer a precopulatory song, the shorter the subsequent mating. This may have been due to males making greater efforts toward less sexually responsive mates. Larger males coupled longer, suggesting a potential conflict of interest between the sexes over copulation duration that bigger males are more apt to win.