Just as there are morning and evening people, crickets too have distinct chronotypes. For field crickets (Gryllus campestris), being an early riser appears to be advantageous: they mate more frequently and are attacked less often by predators. So report English ecologists on 18 March in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Field crickets with flexible activity start times mate even more frequently, but also suffer more attacks. Nevertheless, they generally survive better, as they are able to adapt more readily to changing circumstances.
Chronotypes have been studied extensively in humans and other animals, but the English ecologists are the first to investigate chronotypes in insects. Using 140 video cameras and mini identification tags glued to the pronotum of the crickets, they mapped the chronotypes of the crickets.