Love bite

The tabour of love for a courting
male cricket often involves providing his mate with ample dinner - a
large blob of a gelatinous substance
known as spermatophylax. Besides
its high nutritional value which
helps the female lay more eggs, the
blob serves to keep the female
engrossed test she mate with rival
males before the first one's sperm
get a chance to work.

However, the decorated cricket,
Gryllodes sigillatus, appears to not
only offer a smaller blob, but its
nutritional value is also questionable. Michael Wills and Scott
Sakahik of Illinois State University,
USA, found that females laid the
same number of eggs regardless of
how much of the blob they ate (BBC
Wildlilfire Vol 13, No 4). They say that
the only worth of the blob for this
desert-inhabiting cricket might be
the globule's water content.