Sexy voices – no choices: male song in noise fails to attract females

Anthropogenic noise affects species relying on acoustic communication. Signals used in acoustic communication are important for reproduction as females are often attracted by signalling males and base their mate choice on male song. Previous studies on the impact of anthropogenic noise on behaviour have focused on the sender and mostly on vertebrates. However, we have little understanding of how potential receivers, e.g. females, are affected by noise. Using playback experiments, we investigated the response of female field crickets, Gryllus bimaculatus, to male song in the presence and absence of anthropogenic noise. We found that anthropogenic noise resulted in less effective phonotaxis towards signalling males. Thus, our study provides experimental evidence that anthropogenic noise affects females by limiting their ability to locate potential mates. Since male songs were not energetically masked by anthropogenic noise, signal masking cannot explain the difference in response. The reduced ability to locate singing males may be explained by distraction caused by the broad stimulus filtering of G. bimaculatus. The behavioural adjustments at the individual level may be passed to higher ecosystem processes, owing to invertebrates' fundamental role as part of a functioning ecosystem. •Anthropogenic noise affects species relying on acoustic communication.•Studies on the impact of noise have focused on male vertebrates.•We found that noise hindered female crickets approaching signalling males.•Noise affects female behaviour by limiting their ability to locate potential mates.