Potential lifetime reproductive success of male bushcrickets parasitized by a phonotactic fly

Males of the bushcricket Poecilimon mariannae are parasitized by the acoustically orienting fly Therobia leonidei. Developing fly larvae reduce male bushcricket survival and reproductive effort. We estimated potential lifetime reproductive success (PLRS) of male bushcrickets to investigate the likely costs of this parasitism. Our analysis explored the relative reduction in PLRS caused by parasitoid infection by examining effects on survival, calling attractiveness and spermatophylax size. We also incorporated nonparasitoid-related mortality. Parasitized males lost 42% of their PLRS compared to nonparasitized males. The shortened life span after parasitism accounted for half of the PLRS reduction. Decreased spermatophylax production also had a major effect on PLRS, while decreased calling attractiveness had a smaller effect. This fitness loss was context dependent and changed with extrinsic nonparasitoid-related mortality. If nonparasitoid-related mortality was high, the selection on host males to avoid parasitism was weak; if it was low, parasitized males lost a considerable amount of reproductive opportunities compared with unparasitized males.