Male spotted lanternflies are not attracted to larger females
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Grant:Research Recruits Program (RRP)
Ayush Patel
CoPIs:
Irene Owusu-Ansah
College:
The Dorothy and George Hennings College of Science, Mathematics, and Technology
Major:
Biology
Faculty Research Advisor(s):
Brenna Levine
Abstract:
Invasive species pose a significant threat to economies, biodiversity, and human health, and their management can be improved by an understanding of their reproductive ecology. The spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula, is an invasive insect that has colonized more than ten US states in less than 10 years, and it poses a major threat to US agriculture. If we can determine why males choose to mate with certain females over others, then this information can be used by managers to disrupt the mating system of the spotted lanternfly. We hypothesized that larger female spotted lanternflies are more attractive to males, as body size may be an indicator of fecundity. To test whether larger females attracted more males, we examined the relationship between three female morphological traits—length from the tip of the head to the tip of the wing, length from the tip of the the head to the tip of the abdomen, and length of the the abdomen—and the number of males that were found courting the females. In mid-October 2024, we surveyed the Kean University (Union, NJ) campus for spotted lanternflies and collected females attended by courting males. We measured the three morphological traits of each female using digital calipers and statistically tested whether female length measurements were correlated with the number of males that were courting the female. We found no correlation between the number of male attendants and the female body size metrics [head to tip of wing length: Kruskall-Wallis Test, p = 0.226; abdomen length: ANOVA, p = 0.574; head to tip of abdomen length: p = 0.623]. These results are consistent with previously published post-copulatory data that showed no relationship between female body size and the number of spermatophores found in the female reproductive tract. When considered in the context of this previous study, our data indicate that males are assessing female attractiveness via traits unrelated to female body size.