Darwinian balancing selection: Predation counters sexual selection in a wild insect

I’m too sexy for my head, too sexy for my head, so sexy I’m dead! (Adapted from Right Said Fred)

Is there a cost to being sexy? That is the question PhD student Kyla Ercit (Gwynne Lab) recently answered in “Darwinian balancing selection: Predation counters sexual selection in a wild insect” published in Evolution.  She found that if you’re a male tree cricket (shown below), there is a cost to being too sexy! She sampled tree crickets from nature and compared males that were successful at mating to males with no mate. They also compared males that were caught by a parasitoid wasp to those that survived. Males with sexy traits, like wide heads, were more likely to mate successfully, but were also more likely to be caught by the wasp. This resulted in selection for intermediate sexiness. So ladies and gentleman, don’t try to be too sexy or you might just find that you are dinner, instead of being invited for dinner.