The role of conspecifics in habitat settlement in a territorial grasshopper

Conspecifics may play a positive, neutral or negative role in the habitat choices of prospective settlers. I investigated the effect of conspecifics on habitat choice in a territorial grasshopper, Ligurotettix coquilletti, in three field experiments using both broadcast calls and live males as stimuli. In a two-bush choice experiment, males chose bushes from which conspecific calls were broadcast over either silent bushes or bushes broadcasting calls of another grasshopper species. When presented with a choice between broad-cast calls and a live conspecific male, however, males preferred bushes that contained a live male. In the third experiment, males were more strongly attracted to bushes occupied by a single territorial male than to unoccupied bushes, but had a lower probability of remaining on occupied bushes over an extended period. Despite the lower overall probability of remaining on a bush, males remained clustered on the occupied bushes at the end of this experiment because of their high initial attraction to occupied bushes. Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour