Butterflies that trick ants with sound - Physics Today

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DQE
Posts: 1653
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:33 pm
Location: near Portland, Maine, USA

Butterflies that trick ants with sound - Physics Today

Post by DQE »

http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/ma ... ?TRACK=RSS

I found this article to be interesting, combining the physical sciences with biological sciences. I have long wondered if sound plays a bigger role in communications for bugs than is currently appreciated. Perhaps we need to couple "macro-compatible" microphones to our macro rigs?!

Below are some sample paragraphs. AFAIK, access is free - a link to a downloadable PDF is provided.
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The nests of ant colonies contain mature ants, their brood, and stored food—valuable commodities to a predator. Those nests, therefore, are aggressively defended by colony members, who employ a complex, finely tuned system to discriminate between nestmates and strangers.

Nonetheless, numerous ant-sized organisms called myrmecophiles (“ant lovers”) thrive within the ant society and perhaps exploit its resources, if only for a short part of their lives. The interactions that have evolved between myrmecophiles and ants range from loose associations to utter dependency for one or both partners. Some 10 000 arthropod species live as ant parasites and have evolved to intercept and exploit their host’s communication code. Among the most fascinating of those adaptations is the acoustic strategy that parasitic Maculinea butterflies use to deceive ants into letting them enter and live undisturbed in a host colony.

<snip>

Do ants hear?

Although we have talked about sounds produced by arthropods, we confess that scientists have only a scant understanding of the structures involved in the production of their acoustic signals and perhaps even less of a handle on how those signals are received. In particular, the community is engaged in a lively debate about the nature of ant hearing. Some, such as acoustician Robert Hickling and entomologist Richard Brown, have argued that ants can hear airborne acoustic waves over short distances; others insist that ants perceive only vibrations transmitted by a substrate, a view supported by the discovery of the so-called subgenual organ in carpenter ants. In our work, we have steered clear of the issue and have used methods of recording and playback compatible with either means of transmission.
-Phil

"Diffraction never sleeps"

Bill Eldridge
Posts: 161
Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 6:46 am
Location: Richmond, Virginia, USA

Post by Bill Eldridge »

Entomologist Karen Kester of VCU here in Richmond has long studied the courtship song of a tiny parasitoid wasp that lays eggs in tobacco worms (caterpillars). A male's failure to sing
the buzz-buzz-buzz-boing correctly results in no loving. She recently co-published a paper on the song production mechanism researched with sensitive mics and high-speed photography.

From just the first few pages of searching PLoS-ONE for "acoustic signals" (who knew that insects have a cocktail party problem?):

Solutions to the Cocktail Party Problem in Insects: Selective Filters, Spatial Release from Masking and Gain Control in Tropical Crickets

Influence of Different Envelope Maskers on Signal Recognition and Neuronal Representation in the Auditory System of a Grasshopper

Inter-Plant Vibrational Communication in a Leafhopper Insect

Exploitation of Insect Vibrational Signals Reveals a New Method of Pest Management

Adaptive Plasticity in Wild Field Cricket’s Acoustic Signaling

Stridulatory Sound-Production and Its Function in Females of the Cicada Subpsaltria yangi
Last edited by Bill Eldridge on Wed Apr 15, 2015 3:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

DQE
Posts: 1653
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:33 pm
Location: near Portland, Maine, USA

Post by DQE »

Thanks for the links.

They show quite a large range in the use of sound!
-Phil

"Diffraction never sleeps"

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