Background: Male field crickets produce pure-tone calling songs to attract females. Receivers are expected to have evolved a "matched filter" in the form of a tuned sensitivity for this frequency. In addition, the peripheral directionality of field crickets is sharply tuned as a result of a pressure difference receiver. We studied both forms of tuning in the same individuals of four species of cricket, where Gryllus bimaculatus and G. campestris are largely allopatric, whereas Teleogryllus oceanicus and T. commodus occur also sympatrically.
Results: The sharpness of the sensitivity filter is highest for T. commodus, which also exhibits low interindividual variability. Individual receivers may also vary strongly in the best frequency for directional hearing. In G. campestris, such best frequencies occur even at frequencies outside the range of carrier frequencies of males. Contrary to the predictions from the "matched filter hypothesis", in three of the four species the frequency optima of the two involved filters are not matched to each other, and the mismatch can amount to 1.2 kHz. The mean carrier frequency of the male population is between the frequency optima of both filters in three species. Only in T. commodus we found a match between both filters and the male carrier frequency.
Conclusion: Our results show that a mismatch between the sensitivity and directionality tuning is not uncommon in crickets, and an observed match (T. commodus) appears to be the exception rather than the rule. The data suggests that independent variation of both filters is possible. During evolution each sensory task may have been driven by independent constraints, and may have evolved towards its own respective optimum.