Katydid (or didn’t she?) respond to the mating call of her
suitors. According to scientists at the University of Missouri,
one species of katydid may owe its ecological success and
expanded habitat range to the ability of male katydids to adjust
their mating calls to attract females. Males of the katydid
species Neoconocephalus triops, which can be found from Peru to
Missouri, produce calls to attract females for mating that
change with the seasons. The males’ summer calls are much faster
than their winter calls. Johannes Schul, MU associate professor
of biological sciences, found that females were attracted only
by a specific speed of the calls and this preference changed
with temperature. “Warm females preferred much faster calls than
cold females,” Schul said. “The fast summer calls attracted
females only at high temperatures and the slow winter calls only
at lower temperatures. Thus, during the winter, females prefer
‘cool guys,’ and in the summer they ‘like them hot.’ ” According
to Schul, male calls exh