Warm and cozy: temperature and predation risk interactively affect oviposition site selection

Because reproductive decision making affects all taxa, parents often use environmental cues to optimize their decisions. Although prefertilization decisions (e.g. mate choice) are well studied, postfertilization decisions, such as oviposition site selection (OSS), can also have profound effects on parent and offspring fitness. We used the Texas field cricket, Gryllus texensis, to examine how OSS was affected by temperature and predation risk. These two factors constrain fitness and may trade off with one another or contribute to parent-offspring conflict (e.g. if ovipositing at offspring's thermal optimum entails increased risk of predation to the parent). Crickets preferred oviposition sites that were warmer and had lower predation risk, but they traded off their preference for temperature with predation risk during OSS. Yet, G. texensis preferred to oviposit at sites that were significantly warmer (up to 30.5 °C) than their preferred body temperature and the optimal temperature of offspring (26-27 °C). This thermal mismatch may be due to selection on hygrosensation (not thermosensation). We show that widespread environmental factors can exert complex interactive effects on important reproductive decisions.