Variation in temperature can affect the expression of a variety of important fitness‐related behaviours, including those involved with mate attraction and selection, with consequences for the ...coordination of mating across variable environments. We examined how temperature influences the expression of male mating signals and female mate preferences—as well as the relationship between how male signals and female mate preferences change across temperatures (signal–preference temperature coupling)—in Enchenopa binotata treehoppers. These small plant‐feeding insects communicate using plantborne vibrations, and our field surveys indicate they experience significant natural variation in temperature during the mating season. We tested for signal–preference temperature coupling in four populations of E. binotata by manipulating temperature in a controlled laboratory environment. We measured the frequency of male signals—the trait for which females show strongest preference—and female peak preference—the signal frequency most preferred by females—across a range of biologically relevant temperatures (18°C–36°C). We found a strong effect of temperature on both male signals and female preferences, which generated signal–preference temperature coupling within each population. Even in a population in which male signals mismatched female preferences, the temperature coupling reinforces predicted directional selection across all temperatures. Additionally, we found similar thermal sensitivity in signals and preferences across populations even though populations varied in the mean frequency of male signals and female peak preference. Together, these results suggest that temperature variation should not affect the action of sexual selection via female choice, but rather should reinforce stabilizing selection in populations with signal–preference matches, and directional selection in those with signal–preference mismatches. Finally, we do not predict that thermal variation will disrupt the coordination of mating in this species by generating signal–preference mismatches at thermal extremes.
Temperature affects characteristics of male attraction signals like fundamental frequency. We found that female mate preference for frequency tracks changes in male signal frequency across temperatures in four populations of Enchenopa treehoppers. This phenomenon, called temperature coupling, maintains stabilizing selection on male signals across variable temperatures in some populations, and directional selection on male signals in populations in which females prefer signal frequencies lower than what males produce.
BACKGROUND
Glassy‐winged sharpshooter (GWSS), Homalodisca vitripennis (Germar) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) is an important vector of the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, the causal agent of Pierce's ...disease of grapevine. Area‐wide insecticide applications have suppressed GWSS populations for ∼ 25 years, but reduced levels of insecticide susceptibility have been reported. Therefore, alternative methods of control are needed. Objectives of this study were to evaluate the efficacy of playback of vibrational mating communication signals for disrupting mating of GWSS in a natural vineyard setting and to evaluate spectral properties of signal transmission through vineyard trellis.
RESULTS
Playback reduced mating of GWSS on grapevines. A total of 28 (of 134) male–female pairs mated in the control treatment (silence) and only one (of 134) pair mated when treated with the vibrational signal playback. Playback of vibrational signals through vineyard trellis was affected by distance from the signal source, with frequency composition being the highest at the source and lowest on vines positioned away from the source. Frequency composition in canes housing test insects decreased exponentially as distance from the source increased, whereas the relative amplitude of analyzed frequencies decreased linearly.
CONCLUSION
Although further studies are needed prior to method implementation, data from this study continue to support integration of vibrational mating disruption with current methods to suppress GWSS populations. Published 2018. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
Playback of vibrational signals on vineyard trellis reduced mating of glassy‐winged sharpshooter. Spectral properties of vibrational signal transmission through grapevines and vineyard trellis changed as distance from the source increased.
The vibrational duets of Nemoura lacustris Pictet,
1865
and N. flexuosa Aubert,
1949
are described from France. Nemoura lacustris communicates with a two-way duet having an ancestral signal pattern ...in which both male and female exhibit monophasic signals. Nemoura lexuosa has a more complex signal in which the male grouped call is composed by 2-4 repeated groups characterised by an increasing mean number of beats within successive groups and decreasing intergroup intervals. The female answer is composed of a variable repetition of beats usually with the three first intervals and the last one longer than others. An uncommon characteristic of the N. flexuosa call is the existence of a second male signal (reply or response) in the absence of the female answer. This reply is similar to the female answer, probably mimicking it and acting as a mate guarding tactic as previously proposed for the replies in other stoneflies by Boumans and Johnsen in 2015, or it could act stimulating the answer of potential female mates, but this should be confirmed.
In sexual communication, partners often form a duet, an exchange of species- and sex-specific signals, and in such systems mate recognition is likely to be reciprocal. We studied the role of ...vibrational signals in reproductive isolation in the genus Aphrodes (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) in which mate recognition is based on highly divergent male advertisement calls and similar female replies. We first determined in playback experiments the preferences of females of four Aphrodes species to conspecific and heterospecific male advertisement calls as well as to species-specific elements in these calls. Females of all four species responded preferentially to calls of conspecific males; however, male calls composed of similar elements played only a limited role in mate recognition. In particular, females of Aphrodes aestuarina and Aphrodes bicincta showed higher responsiveness to each other's male calls than to calls of other species. In this species pair we further examined the role of female signals and duet structure in assortative mating using ‘no-choice’ mating experiments. The generally higher responsiveness of A. aestuarina females to male calls of A. bicincta did not translate into higher mating success in this heterospecific cross; lengthy replies of A. aestuarina females resulted in a breakdown of a complex species-specific duet structure and associated difficulties in locating the female reduced the probability of heterospecific mating. Our study shows that in mating systems based on a duet, males may contribute more than females to sexual isolation between species. Males' contribution to assortative mating may stem not only from mate recognition but also from inability to locate the source of the heterospecific female reply.
•Sexual communication in Aphrodes is based on species-specific vibrational duet.•In duetting systems both partners contribute to sexual isolation.•Male calls composed of similar elements have a limited role in mate recognition.•Complex species-specific duet structure is crucial for reproductive isolation.•Males' contribution results also from inability to locate the heterospecific female.
Rhabdiopteryx thienemanni Illies,
1957
is a stonefly species distributed across southern France and the Iberian Peninsula. The male drumming call of this species had been so far known only from a ...Spanish population, but the complete duet is unknown. In the present paper, complete three-way signal is described for the first time in details from a French population. The male call does not differ from the pattern presented by the Spanish population. Records of female answers are composed of a large repetition of knocks but interknock intervals are almost constant in the first two thirds of the signal and increasing progressively in the last part. The male reply is also composed of approximately constant interknock intervals that become variable (increasing) in the last part of the signal. The male reply mimics the female answer. The signal of R. thienemanni is compared with other Rhabdiopteryx species.
Is It Time for Ecotremology? Šturm, Rok; López Díez, Juan José; Polajnar, Jernej ...
Frontiers in ecology and evolution,
03/2022, Letnik:
10
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Our awareness of air-borne sounds in natural and urban habitats has led to the recent recognition of soundscape ecology and ecoacoustics as interdisciplinary fields of research that can help us ...better understand ecological processes and ecosystem dynamics. Because the vibroscape (i.e., the substrate-borne vibrations occurring in a given environment) is hidden to the human senses, we have largely overlooked its ecological significance. Substrate vibrations provide information crucial to the reproduction and survival of most animals, especially arthropods, which are essential to ecosystem functioning. Thus, vibroscape is an important component of the environment perceived by the majority of animals. Nowadays, when the environment is rapidly changing due to human activities, climate change, and invasive species, this hidden vibratory world is also likely to change without our notice, with potentially crucial effects on arthropod communities. Here, we introduce ecotremology, a discipline that mainly aims at studying substrate-borne vibrations for unraveling ecological processes and biological conservation. As biotremology follows the main research concepts of bioacoustics, ecotremology is consistent with the paradigms of ecoacoustics. We argue that information extracted from substrate vibrations present in the environment can be used to comprehensively assess and reliably predict ecosystem changes. We identify key research questions and discuss the technical challenges associated with ecotremology studies.
•Social environment during ontogeny can have strong consequences on mate preference.•Prior work found variation in insect mate preferences reared in isolation vs. in aggregations.•Playbacks to nymphs ...reared in isolation partly rescued the effect of rearing them in aggregations.•We pinpoint interactions during development as a cause of signal ontogeny in an insect.•Signalling interactions from early life are essential for the development of adult communication even in insects.
We recently discovered that there is a social ontogeny of signals and preferences in Enchenopa treehoppers. Nymphs signalled throughout their development; some signal features changed gradually and in sexually dimorphic ways throughout ontogeny; and some adult male signal features and female mate preferences differed between individuals reared in isolation or groups. In this paper, we investigate whether signalling interactions during ontogeny are a cause of plasticity in mating signals and preferences. We subjected Enchenopa nymphs to treatments of either: rearing in aggregations (the natural condition), in isolation, or in isolation with playbacks of nymph signals. We then described variation in the signals and mating preferences of individuals that developed in those conditions. The playback treatments partially “rescued” the signal and preference phenotypes, resulting in phenotypes either similar to those that result from rearing in aggregations, or intermediate between those that result from rearing in isolation or in aggregations. These results pin-point signalling interactions during ontogeny as an important cause of plasticity in signals and mate preferences.
Fungus-growing higher termites build long subterranean galleries that lead outwards from the nest to foraging sites. When soldiers are disturbed, they tend to drum with their heads against the ...substrate and thereby create vibrational alarm signals. The present study aimed at describing these acoustic signals, how they are elicited, produced and perceived, and how these signals propagate within the galleries and nests over long distances in two termite species of the Southern African savannah, Macrotermes natalensis and an Odontotermes sp. The signals consist of trains of pulses with a pulse repetition rate of 10-20 Hz. The galleries have physical features that promote vibrational communication and are used as channels for long-distance communication. In M. natalensis, the signal propagation velocity is ~130 m s(-1) and the signals are attenuated by ~0.4 dB per centimetre distance. Nestmates are extremely sensitive to these vibrations with a behavioural threshold amplitude of 0.012 m s(-2). Workers respond by a fast retreat into the nest and soldiers are recruited to the source of vibration. Soldiers also start to drum with a reaction time of about 0.3 s, thereby amplifying the intensity of the signal. This social long-distance communication through chains of signal-reamplifying termites results in a relatively slow propagation (1.3 m s(-1)) of the signal without decrement over distances of several metres.
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