Flight-muscle polymorphism in the cricket Gryllus firmus: muscle characteristics and their influence on the evolution of flightlessness.

Nutrient absorption and utilization by wing and flight muscle morphs of the cricket Gryllus firmus: implications for the trade-off between flight capability and early reproduction.

Absorption efficiency (AD, approximate digestibility, assimilation efficiency) of various macronutrients and conversion of absorbed nutrients to biomass (ECD) were compared among the two types of flightless morph and the flight-capable morph of the cricket, Gryllus firmus. No biologically significant phenotypic or genetic difference in AD for carbohydrate, protein or lipid was observed among mo...

Juvenile hormone titer and morph-specific reproduction in the wing-polymorphic cricket, Gryllus firmus.

Juvenile hormone titers and reproductive characteristics were measured in adult wing and flight-muscle morphs of the wing-polymorphic cricket, Gryllus firmus, during the first week of adulthood. This species has three morphs: one flight capable morph with fully-developed wings and fully-developed flight muscles [LW(F)], one flightless morph with fully-developed wings and histolyzed (non-functio...

The metabolic basis of life history variation: genetic and phenotypic differences in lipid reserves among life history morphs of the wing-polymorphic cricket, Gryllus firmus.

The flight-capable morph of the wing-polymorphic cricket, Gryllus firmus, accumulated a substantially greater quantity of total lipid and triglyceride, compared with the obligately flightless morph, during the first five days of adulthood. Increased lipid accumulation in the flight-capable morph was genetically based, and was produced when ovarian growth is substantially reduced in that morph. ...

Nutritional physiology of life-history trade-offs: how food protein-carbohydrate content influences life-history traits in the wing-polymorphic cricket Gryllus firmus.

Although life-history trade-offs result from the differential acquisition and allocation of nutritional resources to competing physiological functions, many aspects of this topic remain poorly understood. Wing-polymorphic insects, which possess alternative morphs that trade off allocation to flight capability versus early reproduction, provide a good model system for exploring this topic. In th...

Differential resource consumption obviates a potential flight–fecundity trade-off in the sand cricket (<i>Gryllus firmus</i>)