12/8/2015

COMMUNICATION

A. Visual (vision)
B. Chemical/Olfactory (pheromones)
C. Mechanical (movement)
1. Tactile (touch)
2. Vibrational (periodic signals)
a. Near-field (puffing)
b. Substrate-borne
• normal (impact)
• tremulation (shaking)
c. Airborne (sound)

Waveforms of signals
wavelength ( ) (in sec) = 1/f, so f = 1/ (= Hertz)

220 Hz

SIMPLE
SINE WAVES
(pure tones)
440 Hz

twice the frequency = half the wavelength

(one octave higher than upper trace)

COMPLEX
WAVEFORM
(still “musical”) amplitude

220+440+660 Hz
(fundamental,
plus 1st & 2nd time
harmonic)

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COMMUNICATION

A. Visual (vision)
B. Chemical/Olfactory (pheromones)
C. Mechanical (movement)
1. Tactile (touch)
2. Vibrational (periodic signals)
a. Near-field (puffing)
b. Substrate-borne
• normal (impact)
• tremulation (shaking)
c. Airborne (sound)

a. Near-field vibrations (air-pulsing or “puffing”)

Drosophila (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Familiar example:
headphones

pulse (IPI ≈ 26 pps

Time-amplitude display (oscillogram)

Time-frequency display (sonogram)

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More near-field vibrations

Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

COMMUNICATION

A. Visual (vision)
B. Chemical/Olfactory (pheromones)
C. Mechanical (movement)
1. Tactile (touch)
2. Vibrational (periodic signals)
a. Near-field (puffing)
b. Substrate-borne
• normal (impact)
• tremulation (shaking)
c. Airborne (sound)

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b-1. Substrate-borne vibrations: Normal (impact)

Stonefly Isogenoides olivaceus

(Plecoptera: Perlodidae)

pulse (IPI ≈ 10 pps

Oscillogram

Sonogram

COMMUNICATION

A. Visual (vision)
B. Chemical/Olfactory (pheromones)
C. Mechanical (movement)
1. Tactile (touch)
2. Vibrational (periodic signals)
a. Near-field (puffing)
b. Substrate-borne
• normal (impact)
• tremulation (shaking)
c. Airborne (sound)

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b-2. Substrate-borne vibrations: Shaking (tremulation)

Oscillation of a body part – e.g., the abdomen in green
lacewings (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae)…

…or the whole body in

water striders
(Hemiptera: Gerridae)… …and some katydids
(Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae)

Some songs of cryptic species in the Chrysoperla carnea group

C. agilis
partner’s answer

C. zastrowi sillemi

C. lucasina

C. pallida

C. mediterranea

C. carnea

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b-3. Substrate-borne vibrations: Buzzing

Application of a tymbal to the substrate – e.g.,
planthoppers (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea) et al.

tymbal

Oscillogram (time-amplitude plot)

Sonogram (time-frequency plot)

A. Visual (vision)
B. Chemical/Olfactory (pheromones)
C. Mechanical (movement)
1. Tactile (touch)
2. Vibrational (periodic signals)
a. Near-field (puffing)
b. Substrate-borne
• normal (impact)
• tremulation (shaking)
c. Airborne (sound)
• forced air
• percussion
• wing-beating
• stridulation (commonest)
• tymbals

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c. Airborne sounds (“real” sounds)

1. Forced air
2. Percussion
3. Wing beating
4. Stridulation
(wings, head/thorax/abdomen, genitalia,
legs, almost anything)
5. Tymbals (thorax or abdomen)

c-1. Forced air

Death’s head hawkmoth

(Sphingidae: Acherontia)

Gromphadorrhina

Sonograms

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c-2. Percussion

c-3. Wing-beating
(crepitation)

Hecatesia thyridion
(Australian whistling moth)

Arphia spp. (band-winged &

redwinged locusts: Acrididae)

c-3. Wing-beating (tones with harmonics)

Aedes albopictus (Asian tiger mosquito)
? 839 (harmonics)
1678
2517
3356

Power spectrum (Hz)

Oscillogram

Sonogram
(harmonics)

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c-4. Stridulation: Files and scrapers

Dung beetle Geotrupes sp. (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

adult

larva

Mongolotettix japonicus
(Orthoptera: Acrididae)

c-4. Stridulation:
legs on wings

Oscillogram

Sonogram

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c-4. Stridulation: Gryllus rubens

Narrow-band,
“musical” sound,
using wings

Oscillogram

Sonogram

Stridulatory structures of crickets (Gryllus spp.)

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Pterophylla camellifolia
c-4. Stridulation:
Broad-band,
“noisy” sound,
using wings

Oscillogram

Sonogram

Stridulatory structures of katydids

scraper or
plectrum

file

mirror scraper stridulatory file left mirror area

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c-5. Tymbals

The periodical cicada, Magicicada

septendecim (Hemiptera: Cicadidae)

Tymbal at rest: Tymbal singing:

Tymbal structure
and function
1911: Encyclopedia Britannica (!)

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Reproductive character displacement in two periodical cicadas,

Magicicada tredecim & M. neotredecim (Marshall & Cooley 2000)
Sonogram

allopatric neotredecim

T (lower pitched) = M. tredecim

N (higher pitched) = M. neotredecim

Jamming of bat echolocation by thoracic tymbals

in an artiid moth, Cycnia tenera

Oscillograms:

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Using an acoustic baffle to increase efficiency

Oecanthus fultoni (snowy tree cricket)

Temperature effects
HOT Oecanthus fultoni (snowy tree cricket)

COLD

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Song temporal patterns in cricket evolution (after Dan Otte)

increasing
specialization

Songs & phylogeny in the carnea-group

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