GECKO PHONOTAXIS TO CRICKET CALLING SONG - A CASE OF SATELLITE PREDATION

Insectivorous Mediterranean house geckos, H. turcicus, are found in the field close to the burrows of calling male decorated crickets, G. supplicans. In playback experiments where adult geckos were presented with calls of these crickets or calls of frogs as controls, geckos exhibited positive phonotaxis to broadcast cricket calling song. This indicates that geckos orient to and approach male cricket calls, even though the crickets call from burrows where they are protected from the geckos. This behavior enables the geckos to intercept and consume female crickets that also respond phonotactically to the cricket calls. Geckos act as satellite predators, a situation which may impose sex-biased mortality on female crickets.