WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:04.040 There are bank Holidays savings waiting this week at Dumb stores. 2 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:07.200 Find a refreshing deal with Coke zero and Diet Coke 3 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:11.080 eighteen pack now only ten euro. Stuck up on snacks 4 00:00:11.080 --> 00:00:14.480 with selected sprinkles range now half price, or enjoy our 5 00:00:14.519 --> 00:00:17.519 great value on selected birds Eye Potato waffles, fish filets 6 00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:20.320 and batter chips and Good Fella's Pizza Mix and Match 7 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:23.199 Annie two for six euro plus. Save more with your 8 00:00:23.239 --> 00:00:24.280 ten or fifty vaccher. 9 00:00:24.559 --> 00:00:26.519 Dumb Stores always better. 10 00:00:26.359 --> 00:00:28.480 Value terms and conditions. Supply bactors can be used to 11 00:00:28.519 --> 00:00:29.920 next grocery shop, to you or our supplies. 12 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:33.359 Oh hey, it's that guy in third period who's always 13 00:00:33.399 --> 00:00:36.079 drawing in a notepad but never lets anyone see it. 14 00:00:36.320 --> 00:00:41.600 Ellie Ward back with another episode of Ologies. So behavioral ecology, 15 00:00:41.719 --> 00:00:44.840 what ding dang cake is it? Well, it's why animals 16 00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:48.159 such as worms and bugs and your cousin do what 17 00:00:48.200 --> 00:00:51.399 they do. And what's a better window into this world 18 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:55.679 than the steamy porthole of cricket boning. So before we 19 00:00:55.679 --> 00:00:57.840 get to that sexinist though, a few thank you. So, 20 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:00.520 first of all, thank you to patrons at peace dot 21 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:03.520 com slash ologies for all the support to make the 22 00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:06.959 podcast since day one. You allowed me to take a 23 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:10.439 trip through the Midwest in April, gathering episodes as I went, 24 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:13.560 so this would not exist without your donations this very episode. 25 00:01:13.719 --> 00:01:16.040 Donations start at twenty five cents an episode if you 26 00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:18.480 want to join in on that party. Also, thank you 27 00:01:18.519 --> 00:01:22.680 to everyone who has subscribed, who's rated, or especially who's 28 00:01:22.719 --> 00:01:25.840 reviewed the podcast. Y'all know I read your reviews on 29 00:01:25.959 --> 00:01:28.400 dark and stormy nights, and then I pluck a fresh 30 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:32.319 one out in gratitude, such as for example, lugubrious disposition, 31 00:01:32.359 --> 00:01:35.599 says Bob Saggett, used here as an expletive. Ali Ward 32 00:01:35.640 --> 00:01:38.319 will crawl into your sweet little ear canal, and before 33 00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:42.280 she leaves, prepare you a veritable feast of fascinating material 34 00:01:42.599 --> 00:01:45.400 on your ear drum table. Don't resist, let her make 35 00:01:45.439 --> 00:01:48.680 brain dinner in your head. Thank you, lugubrius disposition for that. 36 00:01:48.840 --> 00:01:53.640 I hope you're uncomfortably bloated with information. Okay, So behavioral ecology, 37 00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:56.760 well us get into it. So the word behavioral comes 38 00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:00.760 from a root for possession, and ecology is the science 39 00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:03.920 of the relationship of living things to their environment, and 40 00:02:03.959 --> 00:02:07.599 it comes from the Greek eikos, meaning house or dwelling. 41 00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:12.360 So being possessed with behavior in relation to your environment. 42 00:02:12.439 --> 00:02:14.439 Why we do what we do where we do it. 43 00:02:14.759 --> 00:02:17.639 So this episode was such a lucky fluke. It was 44 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:20.319 just a gift from space and time. I was driving 45 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:23.360 through the Midwest and I had a cancelation in an interview, 46 00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:27.560 so I had one extra hour in Omaha. So I tweeted, okay, 47 00:02:27.719 --> 00:02:30.000 so I happened to have the day open in Omaha. 48 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:32.000 Aneologists out there? Or should I just go to the 49 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:34.879 Omaha Zoo and lurk around with my equipment? And this 50 00:02:35.039 --> 00:02:38.439 ologist tweeted back, or you could just come lurk around 51 00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:41.599 Creaton University, visit my lab and learn all about cricket 52 00:02:41.639 --> 00:02:44.120 sex and the nasty little horse hair worms that manipulate 53 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:47.560 their host behavior in physiology. My response, I'll be there 54 00:02:47.560 --> 00:02:50.400 in fifteen minutes. So I think she had to postpone 55 00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:53.479 a ten year review for this which is endearing and 56 00:02:53.719 --> 00:02:58.840 very punk rock. But I ran into her building excellently 57 00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:03.319 science Ah dashed into her office and we had a 58 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:07.159 breakneck fast interview about her amazing work. So we sat 59 00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:10.400 down at her desk and had just a scintillating chat 60 00:03:10.439 --> 00:03:13.719 about what puts crickets in the mood, what kind of 61 00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:18.560 people behavioral ecologists are, why she likes converting pre meds 62 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:23.039 to cricket folks, some nightmarish parasites in breeding that puts 63 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:26.800 Game of Thrones to shame, and why crickets and other 64 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:30.680 animals such as humans might delay making babies in favor 65 00:03:30.719 --> 00:03:33.800 of more pressing concerns. So put your stubby wings together 66 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:37.319 and make some noise for assistant professor at Creighton University 67 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:41.280 and behavioral ecologist, doctor Amy Worthington. 68 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:00.560 Worthington. 69 00:04:00.680 --> 00:04:03.080 Okay, there we go, doctor Worthington, of course, and so 70 00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:03.759 here we are. 71 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:04.800 We're in Omaha. 72 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:09.960 I have just completely bulldozed into your workday. They're so 73 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:10.599 sorry all. 74 00:04:10.520 --> 00:04:11.159 The right ways. 75 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:14.039 Thank you so much for being on Twitter and available 76 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:16.480 for me to like just bust into your university. 77 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:20.240 Well, thanks for being responsive to my fan tweeting you 78 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:23.279 and trying to bull you into coming to Creighton instead 79 00:04:23.279 --> 00:04:23.959 of the Omahazu. 80 00:04:24.439 --> 00:04:27.839 Well, I am very obviously familiar with what you do 81 00:04:27.879 --> 00:04:33.279 because your Twitter banner is two crickets in an tender 82 00:04:33.319 --> 00:04:37.199 intimate moment they are having sex. Ye, and so now 83 00:04:37.240 --> 00:04:42.120 you study cricket sex, but in a wider outlook. It's 84 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:46.959 reproductive physiology, behavioral ecology, tell me about what you do. 85 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:50.040 Yeah, So a lot of the research that we do 86 00:04:50.120 --> 00:04:53.519 in my lab is we focus on the concept that 87 00:04:53.560 --> 00:04:55.519 there are what we call life history trade offs. 88 00:04:55.720 --> 00:05:01.199 Again, life history trade offs. Everyone from crickets to squirrels 89 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:03.319 to you has to make trade offs. 90 00:05:03.480 --> 00:05:06.839 So there's kind of every organism has a limited amount 91 00:05:06.839 --> 00:05:09.879 of resources in terms of energy that they can allocate 92 00:05:09.879 --> 00:05:13.800 towards different physiological processes, and if you overinvest in one, 93 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:16.680 it means that one of those other physiological processes doesn't 94 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:19.959 have the energy needed to fuel it. So our big 95 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:21.680 trade off that we look at is the trade off 96 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:24.600 between the immune response and reproduction. These are two of 97 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:27.920 the most energetically costly processes of any individuals. 98 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:32.000 So for some individual animals it comes down to remaining 99 00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:35.759 alive or having shorties. But sometimes I guess animals can't 100 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:38.480 decide should I mate and die? Should I literally fuck 101 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:39.160 off and die. 102 00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:41.560 Or live fast, die hard? Yeah? 103 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:44.319 Or should I stay alive and maybe not reproduce as much? 104 00:05:44.519 --> 00:05:48.000 Yeah, and postpone reproduction until you're healthy and you've recovered 105 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:49.759 from some type of illness or parasite. 106 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:54.040 Absolutely are like finishing school. I don't know ps. Speaking 107 00:05:54.040 --> 00:05:57.000 of which, Amy got a bachelor's and a master's in 108 00:05:57.079 --> 00:06:00.720 biology at the University of South Dakota and PhD in 109 00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:04.759 ecology and evolutionary biology from iOS State University. And she 110 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:08.360 says she grew up obsessed with Bill nye Hey and 111 00:06:08.519 --> 00:06:11.560 her dad always set up science projects like rockets and 112 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:15.360 paper lanterns and chemistry experiments. And she says as a kid, 113 00:06:15.519 --> 00:06:18.120 she would hole up in her room, sometimes taking notes 114 00:06:18.279 --> 00:06:23.240 on organisms in her animal encyclopedia, which is such adorable dorkiness. 115 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:25.439 I want a time machine. I want to go back 116 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:27.800 and babysitter. And she said she wanted to be a 117 00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:30.000 science educator, but didn't realize that she was going to 118 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:33.199 be a researcher until after getting her masters, so she 119 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:35.480 moved on to her PhD. And so now you're doing 120 00:06:35.560 --> 00:06:39.040 this kind of under the model of crickets. Yes, Did 121 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:41.519 you always like crickets or are they like a really 122 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:44.639 fast reproducing, like a good species to study? 123 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:49.519 Yes to all of the above. Okay, so crickets. You know, 124 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:52.439 I didn't grow up loving insects. I was, like most people, 125 00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:55.120 terrified of them. Huh. I worked in a pet store 126 00:06:55.120 --> 00:06:57.639 for a long time, and crickets were my first insect 127 00:06:57.720 --> 00:07:00.639 that I had an intimate relationship with to get them 128 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:04.480 to feed their or their animals. So I became really 129 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:07.920 familiar with them then. And when I started my PhD, 130 00:07:08.399 --> 00:07:11.720 there was a project in a lab at Iowa State 131 00:07:11.800 --> 00:07:15.879 working on crickets, and they're just fabulous organisms. There's a 132 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:22.000 surprisingly large research group that focuses on research and crickets, 133 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:26.439 especially in the context of evolution and mating and reproduction 134 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:32.680 and immune response, and so they're perfect. They reproduce really quickly. 135 00:07:32.839 --> 00:07:35.560 You could have a lab population of them, so you 136 00:07:35.639 --> 00:07:36.360 kind of always have. 137 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:37.439 Access to them. 138 00:07:37.879 --> 00:07:41.399 And they're easy to handle, they're easy to rear, they're 139 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:44.439 cheap to feed. They eat special Katie cat food from Walmart. 140 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:48.519 They do. I didn't know that. And so they're just 141 00:07:49.079 --> 00:07:50.639 fabulous organisms to work with. 142 00:07:50.839 --> 00:07:54.000 And each lady cricket can have over two hundred children, 143 00:07:54.279 --> 00:07:58.040 which smokes the birthrate of both of my Catholic grandmas. 144 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:01.920 I asked Amy if her lab said objects ever serenade her. 145 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:04.800 The male sing oh, yes, okay. 146 00:08:04.839 --> 00:08:07.519 So the males rub their wings together, not their legs, 147 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:09.319 which is a common misconception. 148 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:11.199 Yeah, that's a flim flam right there. Yeah. 149 00:08:11.319 --> 00:08:14.199 Yeah, So they rub their the males rub their wings together, 150 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:16.560 and it's a mechanism to attract females. 151 00:08:17.160 --> 00:08:20.000 So they have several different calls, both ones that attract 152 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:20.600 females from. 153 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:22.959 A long ways away, and then when females get close, 154 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:25.959 they change into a different type of song that essentially 155 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:27.319 displays how sexy they are. 156 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:29.360 You are so friggin' sexy right now. 157 00:08:29.480 --> 00:08:33.639 At what point did you start to really like embrace 158 00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:37.840 the cricket and get excited about doing research with them. 159 00:08:38.759 --> 00:08:44.120 Yeah. So when I first started my PhD, my first 160 00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:45.399 year my PhD, I went out. 161 00:08:45.320 --> 00:08:46.720 In the field and collected these crickets. 162 00:08:46.759 --> 00:08:50.240 And one of the things that will always stick with 163 00:08:50.279 --> 00:08:53.519 me is collecting these crickets in the wild is insane, really, 164 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:57.759 because you're out at night in a field and you're 165 00:08:57.799 --> 00:09:00.759 trying to collect these crickets and find them. And half 166 00:09:00.799 --> 00:09:02.639 the time, when you think you find a cricket, you 167 00:09:02.759 --> 00:09:05.240 get close and you see one and about two inches 168 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:08.639 away there is a spider or a scorpion, some type 169 00:09:08.679 --> 00:09:12.240 of predator that's just about ready to eat it. Oh, 170 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:16.120 and so you start realizing that there are a lot 171 00:09:16.120 --> 00:09:18.840 of issues at play in terms of these males that 172 00:09:18.919 --> 00:09:23.000 are calling and they're drawing attention to themselves because they're 173 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:26.960 sending out this large auditory queue to the environment, so 174 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:29.799 predators can find them easily. And on the flip side, 175 00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:32.879 you got these females that are out wandering aimlessly trying 176 00:09:32.919 --> 00:09:34.799 to find these males, and they have to travel fairly 177 00:09:34.840 --> 00:09:37.960 long distances to find males, and in the process they're 178 00:09:38.039 --> 00:09:43.879 encountering predators themselves, and parasites and all sorts of different pathogens. 179 00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:47.559 And it just is amazing that they can be as 180 00:09:47.639 --> 00:09:49.879 numerous as they are when they have so many challenges 181 00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:52.399 that are kind of hindering their ability to reproduce. 182 00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:57.200 Yeah, and so what are the biggest challenges that you've 183 00:09:57.320 --> 00:09:59.039 encountered or how do you study that in the lab, 184 00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:01.159 because I'm going to guess at your lab doesn't have 185 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:05.080 like scorpions and spiders everywhere like an obstacle course, no, 186 00:10:05.240 --> 00:10:07.600 like a Halloween like horror house for the cricket. 187 00:10:08.679 --> 00:10:09.840 That would be fabulous. 188 00:10:10.039 --> 00:10:15.000 But we actually study the effects of this long lived 189 00:10:15.080 --> 00:10:16.480 parasite called a horse. 190 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:19.519 Hair worm, and they are fairly. 191 00:10:19.320 --> 00:10:23.919 Large parasites that infect crickets as one of their hosts. 192 00:10:24.200 --> 00:10:27.879 They also infect cockroaches and pragmanteds and things like that. 193 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:30.559 All right, so one of the factors of immunity is 194 00:10:30.840 --> 00:10:33.519 do y'all get parasites? And we're just gonna put our 195 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:36.080 blankety blinker on. We're gonna merge real quick onto a 196 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:39.879 side street about horse hair worms, because they are bananas 197 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:44.000 and they're more nightmarish than any sci fi cgi and 198 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:46.679 crickets have to contend with them. But first off, how 199 00:10:46.759 --> 00:10:47.639 rare are these things? 200 00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:50.399 The number of people I've had come up to me 201 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:51.960 and be like, Okay, I have a question. 202 00:10:52.200 --> 00:10:54.720 I stepped on a cricket the other day and then 203 00:10:54.759 --> 00:10:57.039 I say, and a giant worm came out, and they're 204 00:10:57.080 --> 00:11:01.440 like yes. And so my yoga teacher did that to me, 205 00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:03.720 and she was surprised that I knew what was coming, 206 00:11:03.720 --> 00:11:05.360 because she thought it was the most bizarre and I 207 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:06.480 wasn't going to believe that it happened. 208 00:11:06.559 --> 00:11:08.559 Yeah, and I'm like, well that's what I study. Oh 209 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:10.960 my god. So they're actually fairly common. 210 00:11:11.080 --> 00:11:13.679 I mean they're in those streams that you're driving over 211 00:11:13.720 --> 00:11:16.240 and that you're kind of ignoring, and so they're they're everywhere. 212 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:17.519 Yeah, I had no idea. 213 00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:21.120 I thought they were super rare because it's there, it's 214 00:11:21.159 --> 00:11:24.080 disgusting and weird. So I was like, oh, this has 215 00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:26.120 got to be like one in a million, like finding 216 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:28.879 a finding a pearl and an oyster something. So how 217 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:30.440 are crickets getting these? 218 00:11:30.639 --> 00:11:32.480 Have they been cursed by a witch? 219 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:35.000 Did they anger a magic troll? 220 00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:40.159 But they essentially get eaten in a cyst form by 221 00:11:40.200 --> 00:11:44.159 the crickets, and then these cysts develop inside of these 222 00:11:44.440 --> 00:11:48.720 hosts for a month and sometimes more, and they when 223 00:11:48.759 --> 00:11:52.919 they emerge, can be, you know, twenty times longer than 224 00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:56.559 the length of their host. Oh so it's actually pretty impressive. 225 00:11:56.600 --> 00:11:57.960 I brought one in justice. 226 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:01.120 The horse hair look like she. 227 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:04.039 Just produced a vial from her blazer pocket and in 228 00:12:04.120 --> 00:12:08.879 it it's just this like gunar, This is amazing. This 229 00:12:08.919 --> 00:12:11.440 looks like my hair all over like car seats and 230 00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:14.240 in the shower. But it's a thick It's like a 231 00:12:14.279 --> 00:12:15.200 thick wiry. 232 00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:16.279 How long is this thing? 233 00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:20.120 I mean my guess is that one's probably about nine 234 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:23.080 to twelve inches long and it came out of a 235 00:12:23.320 --> 00:12:25.200 you know, like a one inch cricket. 236 00:12:25.879 --> 00:12:27.399 How does it happen? 237 00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:28.960 This looks like something that if you found it in 238 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:32.080 your omelet, you would definitely sue the diner. This is 239 00:12:32.440 --> 00:12:36.399 gnar le. So how do they grow so much bigger? 240 00:12:36.440 --> 00:12:38.039 And what's the difference in mass? 241 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:42.120 Yeah, So this is what's kind of crazy, is that 242 00:12:42.279 --> 00:12:45.919 these parasites grow from something that you have to basically 243 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:50.039 see under a microscope into a warm this large. They 244 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:52.919 do it over about the course of a month, which 245 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:54.879 is a significant portion of the cricket's life. 246 00:12:55.080 --> 00:12:55.320 Yeah. 247 00:12:55.639 --> 00:12:56.799 Crickets generally live. 248 00:12:56.679 --> 00:12:58.799 From maybe two to three months in the wild and 249 00:12:58.799 --> 00:12:59.240 that's it. 250 00:12:59.720 --> 00:13:01.919 So for half to a third. 251 00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:04.279 Of a cricket's life, they have this terrible parasite that's 252 00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:07.960 growing like crazy inside them. And the only thing that 253 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:10.840 these parasites can rely on for their own growth is 254 00:13:10.919 --> 00:13:13.679 essentially eating up the fat reserves of their host. 255 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:17.720 No so quick aside. Not only that, but certain species 256 00:13:17.759 --> 00:13:22.679 can zombify the host's brain, making them seek water, fling 257 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:26.080 themselves in and drown so that the horsehair worm can 258 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:28.879 make a graceful exit out of its dead anus to 259 00:13:28.919 --> 00:13:31.480 go make more babies in the water. And just as 260 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:34.639 I was relishing in the comfort of not being a cricket, 261 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:37.320 I did stumble upon a paper in a scientific journal 262 00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:40.200 about a few people in Japan who have been infected 263 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:42.720 with horse hair worms, and now I have to bleach 264 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:46.840 my eyeballs anyway, behavior licology, life history tradeoffs. 265 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:49.879 So getting back into what I generally study in terms 266 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:53.720 of these life history tradeoffs. Obviously, in this case, the 267 00:13:54.039 --> 00:13:57.480 host cricket potentially would like to have an immune response 268 00:13:57.480 --> 00:14:00.320 and mounta an immune response against these parasites to kill 269 00:14:00.360 --> 00:14:02.360 them off. And we've been trying to figure out how 270 00:14:02.399 --> 00:14:05.120 it is that the parasites actually avoid being detected by 271 00:14:05.159 --> 00:14:08.799 the immunier's response of the cricket. And then on top 272 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:11.120 of that being that it looks like the crickets aren't 273 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:15.120 necessarily able to mount a response against them. But one 274 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:18.279 of the drawbacks to that is that these parasites now 275 00:14:18.519 --> 00:14:21.360 actively eat and take up all of the fat reserves 276 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:24.559 of the cricket, which otherwise these crickets are trying to 277 00:14:24.600 --> 00:14:28.120 build up for their own reproductive purposes, So they're using 278 00:14:28.200 --> 00:14:32.240 that fat in order to grow larger. They're investing that 279 00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:36.240 fat and those energy resources into creating very large testes. 280 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:38.559 You may not know this, but crickets have some of 281 00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:41.759 the largest testes per body size. 282 00:14:42.159 --> 00:14:47.200 The animal in the animal kingdom. Really they're giant, very large. 283 00:14:47.879 --> 00:14:50.200 Why And it's because they have a lot of sex. 284 00:14:50.360 --> 00:14:53.120 Oh my god, they do so much sex. 285 00:14:53.159 --> 00:14:57.879 So on average, some recent studies have shown that individuals 286 00:14:57.879 --> 00:14:59.919 mate up to like seven or eight times per night. 287 00:15:00.200 --> 00:15:03.200 Oh boy, with the same cricket or just like. 288 00:15:03.159 --> 00:15:04.679 Usually it can be the same. 289 00:15:05.159 --> 00:15:08.960 And they also will go out and actively find other 290 00:15:09.399 --> 00:15:10.360 partners to mate with. 291 00:15:10.440 --> 00:15:16.279 Why are they so horny? So horny? They get a 292 00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:17.480 lot of benefit out of it. 293 00:15:17.559 --> 00:15:20.879 So obviously, for males, the more they mate, the more 294 00:15:21.240 --> 00:15:24.039 tickets in the lottery so to speak, they have for 295 00:15:24.759 --> 00:15:27.720 you know, providing sperm to fertilize the female's eggs. And 296 00:15:27.759 --> 00:15:30.360 for females, some of my PhD work actually showed that 297 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:34.480 females that made early and often actually have higher fecundity, 298 00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:36.559 so they're able to lay more eggs and have more 299 00:15:36.559 --> 00:15:38.240 offspring themselves. 300 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:39.960 Like a use it or lose it kind of a thing. 301 00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:42.440 Yeah, So both males and females mate at high rates 302 00:15:42.440 --> 00:15:44.399 and they get fitness benefits from doing so. 303 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:45.639 Oh my god. 304 00:15:45.759 --> 00:15:48.440 So then is this also like we're going to need 305 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:50.200 more baby crickets out there if we're going to have 306 00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:53.159 scorpions trying to hunt us when we're out doing our songs, Like, 307 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:55.200 is this also just strengthen numbers? 308 00:15:55.480 --> 00:15:58.320 Yeah, it's a bit of that, you know. Like animals 309 00:15:58.360 --> 00:15:59.840 in the wild, their main goal is. 310 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:03.559 To produce the maximum amount offspring as possible, and individuals 311 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:06.759 that can produce more offspring than other individuals of their 312 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:10.039 same species have higher fitness, they pass on more of 313 00:16:10.039 --> 00:16:13.720 their genes, and in terms of evolutionary time periods, they 314 00:16:13.720 --> 00:16:16.159 have a bigger effect in terms of which genes are 315 00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:17.759 a part of that pool. 316 00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:23.440 So provided they have the resources themselves to survive, animals 317 00:16:23.480 --> 00:16:26.960 are typically wired to pass along more of themselves. But 318 00:16:27.080 --> 00:16:30.279 even Charles Darwin was like, why though he wrote in 319 00:16:30.360 --> 00:16:33.480 eighteen sixty two, we do not even in the least 320 00:16:33.720 --> 00:16:37.799 know the final cause of sexuality, why new beings should 321 00:16:37.799 --> 00:16:40.919 be produced by the union of the two sexual elements. 322 00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:44.840 The whole subject is as yet hidden in darkness. A 323 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:48.759 study published in Nature twenty fifteen shone a light on it, 324 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:52.320 and it dealt with flower beetles and essentially in bread 325 00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:56.320 them for several generations, kind of like royalty, until they 326 00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:59.200 could no longer go on and survive. And the study 327 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:02.159 found that it was pretty key for the males to 328 00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:07.240 compete for reproduction and females to choose, and the authors wrote, quote, 329 00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:12.119 our findings revealed that sexual selection improves population viability in 330 00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:15.680 the face of genetic stress. So I suppose just know, 331 00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:19.880 the choosier you are today, the better off our entire 332 00:17:19.960 --> 00:17:24.160 species tomorrow. So keep swiping. And So with your research, 333 00:17:24.559 --> 00:17:27.640 are you looking at how often the crickets are mating, 334 00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:31.440 what resources they need, what have you been able to 335 00:17:31.880 --> 00:17:34.839 determine from that? And does it apply to any other 336 00:17:35.400 --> 00:17:37.440 bugs or any other species? 337 00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:38.039 Oh? 338 00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:43.279 Yeah, so we've got some pretty crazy evidence from my PhD. 339 00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:45.279 And this is actually one of the coolest things that 340 00:17:45.319 --> 00:17:48.480 I came across. And why I am now like so 341 00:17:48.599 --> 00:17:52.240 unbelievably passionate about crickets is that during my PhD we 342 00:17:52.240 --> 00:17:53.000 were trying to look. 343 00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:54.799 At, Okay, well, why what. 344 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:57.920 Benefits do females get from mating. We know that if 345 00:17:57.960 --> 00:18:00.839 they mate more, they lay more eggs and have more offspring. 346 00:18:01.319 --> 00:18:04.440 But males don't provide anything. They give like this teeny 347 00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:08.000 tiny little spermataphor, which is just a capsule containing sperm 348 00:18:08.079 --> 00:18:09.559 and some seminal fluids, and. 349 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:11.240 Then they're off. There's no parental care. 350 00:18:11.319 --> 00:18:14.200 They don't give anything to the females. In fact, sometimes 351 00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:17.319 they can injure the females because they're kind of jerksy. 352 00:18:17.480 --> 00:18:21.240 Females are having more babies when they mate more, and 353 00:18:21.319 --> 00:18:23.680 so we started looking at what exactly is in that 354 00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:28.599 spermatophor aside from sperm, and one trend that had been 355 00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:31.559 building not only in crickets but across a variety of 356 00:18:31.559 --> 00:18:35.519 different taxa are that females that mate more or that 357 00:18:35.640 --> 00:18:38.279 have made it have stronger immune systems. 358 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:40.559 Oh my god. 359 00:18:40.599 --> 00:18:44.119 Which there's a lot of explanations for that, but when 360 00:18:44.119 --> 00:18:47.400 you get down to these crickets that are basically just 361 00:18:47.480 --> 00:18:50.880 passing seminal fluid and that's it, we don't really know 362 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:54.039 why they would have a stronger immune response and essentially 363 00:18:54.039 --> 00:18:57.519 have increased survival. And so for my work, I ended 364 00:18:57.599 --> 00:18:59.799 up looking into that and found that there are part 365 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:03.680 twoular chemicals that are passed on in that seminal fluid 366 00:19:04.440 --> 00:19:08.759 that are both major modulators of female reproduction. 367 00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:12.759 So secon thing in the sperm capsule. What is in 368 00:19:12.799 --> 00:19:15.599 the sperm capsule is pixie dust? Is it a do 369 00:19:15.799 --> 00:19:16.759 drop of red. 370 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:20.519 Bull So as males provide they're called prostaglandins. As males 371 00:19:20.519 --> 00:19:23.279 provide prostaglandins. It helps females produce more eggs and it 372 00:19:23.319 --> 00:19:24.880 stimulates them to lay more eggs. 373 00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:28.759 But this chemical is also one of the major modulators 374 00:19:28.759 --> 00:19:29.720 of the immune response. 375 00:19:30.440 --> 00:19:35.039 Oh so, if you are out there you're getting more 376 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:37.960 cricket tail and you're a lady, does that mean that 377 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:40.720 you're less likely to get like a horse hair worm? 378 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:41.759 Potentially? 379 00:19:41.960 --> 00:19:46.519 Okay, definitely seems like you're less likely to dive from 380 00:19:46.519 --> 00:19:49.599 some of the other diseases such as like bacterial infections. 381 00:19:49.680 --> 00:19:53.279 Uh huh. You might also be able to fight off ectoparasites. 382 00:19:52.440 --> 00:19:56.000 More ooh yeah, and so there's all of these things 383 00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:00.960 that go together in terms of you know, as individuals mate, 384 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:03.160 they gain fitness and they can lay more eggs and 385 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:05.960 have more offspring. But it also seems you know, we 386 00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:09.440 generally think of okay, if you overinvest in reproduction, well, 387 00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:11.680 now you don't have as much energy to invest in 388 00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:13.000 immune response. 389 00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:17.480 Which would make sense because making other beings is expensive, 390 00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:20.039 and more so when you're not a cricket and you 391 00:20:20.079 --> 00:20:22.480 can't just bury a hundred of your babies in loose 392 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:25.160 soil and be like me're bye, good luck, gonna go 393 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:28.519 find some new dads, But how does it affect crickets? 394 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:31.519 And yet here we are finding females that are having 395 00:20:31.559 --> 00:20:34.960 increased fitness and laying more babies and also having a 396 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:35.960 stronger immune response. 397 00:20:36.680 --> 00:20:37.759 So it goes. 398 00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:40.200 Against the ideas of these trade offs that we kind 399 00:20:40.200 --> 00:20:41.400 of innately think exist. 400 00:20:41.759 --> 00:20:45.839 What about the males, Do they lose anything by mating more? 401 00:20:45.880 --> 00:20:49.559