Sexual behavior and factors affecting female reproduction in house and field crickets

The objective of this investigation was to clarify the adaptive significance of female sexual behaviours in the house cricket, Acheta domesticus, and the Texas field cricket, Gryllus integer. Experiments were focussed primarily on: nutritional factors affecting female reproductive success; the ontogeny of female sexual behaviours; female mating frequency and progeny production; and the pattern of sperm competition. Reproduction of singly mated female A. domesticus assigned to 3 nutritional regimes was compared . Females fed a vitamin and protein-enriched mouse chow, cannibalistic females, and starved females produced on the average, 513 , 200 and 68 offspring, respectively. Cannibals probably could not obtain the same amounts of essential nutrients as females fed mouse chow. Reabsorption of oocytes was likely the major factor contributing to the decreased reproduction of starved females. In addition, female !. domesticus fed mouse chow, but allowed constant access to males produced 11 times as many offspring than did females fed corn meal. Females fed corn meal probably could not absorb or synthesize enough dietary lipids, thus resulting in poor ovariole growth. Female !. domesticus first mate at an average adult age of 7 days, closely corresponding to when they first exhibit positive phonotaxis. Females mate repeatedly and often consume the externally attached spermatophore. In ~. domesticus, females allowed constant access to males produced significantly more offspring than did single maters. Similarly, doubly mated G. integer females produced more offspring than did single maters. This difference resulted largely from the failure of many single maters to reproduce. Remating by female crickets partly functions in offsetting the possibility of a failed initial mating. Nymph production increased significantly with the time the spermatophore was attached in singly mated ~. domesticus. Spermatophore consumption by the female was not affected by male guarding behaviour, and the interval between mating and eating of the spermatophore may often be shorter than the time required for maximum insemination. Some degree of sperm depletion in singly mated !. domesticus and G. integer may have occurred. The patterns of daily offspring production of singly and multiplymated females suggests that a factor provided by a male during mating stimulates female oviposition and/or egg production. Female crickets also might acquire nutrition from spermatophore consumption, a benefit that is augmented by female multiple mating. The electrophoretic examination of various allozymes in ~. integer did not permit determination of a pattern of sperm competition. However, the possibility of last male sperm predominance is related to male guarding behaviour.

Original Chapman home ranch packing house, Santa Ysabel, California, ca. 1900

Original Chapman home ranch packing house, Santa Ysabel, California, ca. 1900. [copy print]

Packing house workers with Old Mission Brand crates and oranges, Covina, California, 1907

Packing house workers with Old Mission Brand crates and oranges, Covina, California, 1907. [Label: Old Mission Brand, Frank M. Chapman, Covina, California]

An Address of members of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, to their constituents, on the subject of the war with Great Britain. --

Signed by George Sullivan and thirty-three other Federalist members.

Massachusetts militia claims : letter from the Secretary of War, transmitting, in pursuance of a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 15th Dec., 1826, a report upon the subject of the claims of the State of Masachusetts for certain services rendered during the late war.--

20th Congress, 2nd session. House Doc. no.3.

Message from the President of the United States, transmitting a report of the Secretary of State, in obedience to a resolution of the thirteenth inst. "requesting the President to lay before this House such documents relative to the Russian mediation as in his opinion it may not be improper to communicate." --

United States,13th Congress, 2d session, 1813-1814. House. Doc. no. 35.

Frank Chapman Jr. [?] in a touring car, beside the Palmetto Grove house, Covina, California, 1909

Frank Chapman Jr. [?] in a touring car, beside the Palmetto Grove house, Covina, California, August, 1909.

Persons who served more than six months in the War of 1812 : letter from the Secretary of War, transmitting in compliance with a resolution of the House calling for a statement of the number of officers, non-commissioned officers, privates, &c., who served for a period of six months and upwards in the War of 1812.--

Caption title.

A sermon, delivered at the meeting house of the second parish in Portland, August 20, 1812 : on the occasion of the national fast /

Published at the particular request of the congregation.

Clifton House Ladies’ and Gentlemens’ Ordinary menu, 1865

The menu, with wine list from the Ladies’ and Gentlemens’ Ordinary of the Clifton House hotel in Niagara Falls, Ont. Also includes handwritten additions or alterations to the printed menu. The proprietors of the hotel were D.H. Bromley & Co. The Clifton House hotel was built in 1833 and destroyed by fire in 1896. It was known as the finest hotel on the Canadian side of the falls. Oakes Garden Theatre marks its location today.

Custom House Niagara forms, 1833

In 1833 William Clarke, the collector of customs at Niagara, completed and signed four forms for the movement of goods between Niagara and York, and Niagara and Brantford. The forms were issued to the firm of Lewis & Gray, James Armstrong, J.A. Wilks, and William Blackely. The goods being transported included scythes, corn brooms, hide whips, sacks, snuff, shovels, spades and two apple trees.

David William Smith House correspondence, 1798 [transcription]

The correspondence from D.W. [David William] Smith to President Peter Russell regarding Smith’s desire to sell a certain piece of property in Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.) to be used as a location for a common grammar school. The notice gives a description of the building situated on the property as being adaptable for the use of a school. The Board of Survey convened in December 1798 to examine Smith’s property and gave an appropriate valuation of the properties and buildings Smith was offering for sale. Smith was the deputy surveyor general of lands for Upper Canada.

Gilbert Field House research collection, 1823, 1966, 1968, n.d.

In 1968 the National Historic Sites, Dept. of Indian Affairs and Northern Development undertook to learn more about its recent acquisition, the Gilbert Field House. The house is located in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. along the Niagara Parkway, on what was part of the original land grant to Gilbert Field, a United Empire Loyalist. The house and contents were severely damaged during the War of 1812. After the war Gilbert’s widow, Eleanor, submitted claims for war losses.