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Vibration and animal communication: A review

American Zoologist, Nov 2001 by Hill, Peggy S M

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Vibration can provide a channel of communication between males and females during mating when no airborne sound is produced. Male Balamara gydia, an Australian cricket, have a complete stridulatory apparatus but communicate with females by tapping their abdomens on vegetation. Both sexes tap, but neither has a tympanal organ (Loher and Dambach, 1989). Primitive male Australian gryllacridids, which are wingless, drum the substrate with tarsal elements of both hindlimbs and females respond in a duet (Field and Bailey, 1997). The New Zealand tree weta (Hemideina femorata), which can be as large as a small mouse, produces vibrations used in mate location by sending bending waves through the sturdy manuka tree (McVean and Field, 1996). Southern green stink bug (Nezara viridula) females from Ethiopia produce vibrations in plant stems that are used by males to locate them (Cold et al. 1999). Cokl et al. (2000a) have recorded and analyzed four different kinds of substrate-- borne songs and compared them for differences among populations from Brazil, Florida, Italy and Slovenia, as this species has become a world-wide pest. Interestingly, the courtship songs of both males and females in all four populations were not different, but the calling songs were different in some features and may be the source of reported reproductive isolation among populations (Cold et al., 2000a, b). Black-- horned tree crickets (Oecanthus nigricornis) in Canada produce percussive vibrations in plant tissue between a mating pair during courtship and after mating (Bell, 1980a), and the quality of their signals is dependent on the species of plant on which they are courting (Bell, 1980b). Male rice planthoppers (family Delphacidae) in Japan respond to vibrations produced by female abdominal vibrations by moving toward them (Ichikawa, 1976). The males respond with vibrations produced by tymbal organs, and these alternating vibrations of both sexes appear to transfer species-specific information required for mating (Ichikawa, 1976). The related leafhopper, Graminella nigrifrons, appears to use behavioral adaptations to overcome physical constraints imposed by substrate-borne signalling. Males use a call-fly strategy until they detect the response of a receptive female, and then they search for her by moving toward the light (Hunt and Nault, 1991). G. nigrifrons females use components of the male's vibration signal for mate recognition but probably not as a mechanism of female choice (Hunt et al., 1992). Bending waves transmitted through plant tissue allow these animals to send and receive signals that retain specific characteristics over distances of meters (Michelsen et al., 1982).

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The deathwatch beetle, Xestobium rufovillosum, drums on the substrate. Males tap with their heads and then search for responding females. They increase activity in response to female tapping and turn repeatedly in the absence of response; although, in controlled experiments males were not able to locate females quickly (Goulson et al., 1994).

Vibration and animal communication: A review

American Zoologist, Nov 2001 by Hill, Peggy S M

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