Are crickets losing their ability to sing? Phylogeny of true crickets (Insecta, Orthoptera, Grylloidea) and evolution of forewings

• Grant number: 24/01332-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Tatiana Teixeira Torres
• Grantee: Lucas Denadai de Campos
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/05636-4 - Dimensions US-BIOTA-São Paulo: more to the blow fly than meets the eye: understanding evolutionary and genetic origins of diverse trophic specializations, AP.BTA.TEM

Abstract

Crickets are frequently used as models in many areas of science with regard to behavior, acoustic communication, ecology, and neurobiology. The understanding of these and other biological disciplines relies on phylogenetic trees to provide comparative and evolutionary context. However, phylogenetic tools are still scarce for Orthoptera order, and even more for Grylloidea, the superfamily of the true crickets. The acoustic communication of these insects, which occurs through the male's forewings, is considered the driving force of their evolution, mainly concerning their reproductive behavior. Nonetheless, crickets' evolutionary history is poorly exploited and understood, mostly because of the lack of phylogenies for this group. Much has been discussed on this subject, but never beyond theory. Thus, basic questions still remain unanswered based on empirical studies for this theme. Would the true crickets be developing or losing more and more acoustic communication using their forewings? This question has been answered intuitively over the years indicating acoustic communication as a recent evolutionary novelty. Nevertheless, this has never been tested until now. Thus, new phylogenies are necessary to rebuild the evolutionary history of characters related to the acoustic communication in crickets. Based on this problematic, this project aims to perform a phylogenetic reconstruction of Grylloidea using molecular data (individual genes and phylogenomics) and obtain its divergence times estimation for this superfamily and inner clades. In addition, the obtained trees will be used as background for comparative phylogenetic methods in order to estimate the evolution of characters related to acoustic communication and macroevolutionary trends in Grylloidea.