Alternate genomic architectures, but convergent function of novel signals in the Pacific field cricket

Evolutionary novelty is abundant across the tree of life. Yet, we still know very little about the evolutionary processes that result in novel traits, in part because few opportunities exist to observe the origins of novelty in real time. The Pacific field cricket provides an ideal study system to investigate the genetic architecture of newly evolved novel sexual signals and gain insight into the molecular processes involved in initial signal diversification and convergent evolution. Natural selection pressures from an acoustically-orienting parasitoid fly in Hawaii initially caused Hawaiian populations of this cricket to lose the ability to signal (silent crickets). Over the last seven years, two new morphs, purring and rattling, have evolved novel sexual signals that evade parasitism while still attracting mates, converging on a common function. I investigate the genomic architecture of these two novel signals and determine whether they evolved on the same or different genomic backgrounds (silent or ancestral). Additionally, purring is now present in four different populations, and I assess gene flow among populations and determine whether purring evolved independently and convergently in each of these populations.