Substrate born songs of the southern green stinkbug Nezara viridula (L.) from Slovenia were recorded and analysed. The male calling song is composed of narrow-band regularly repeated single pulses ...and of broad-band frequency modulated pulses grouped into pulse trains. The female calling song is characterised by broad-band pulsed and narrow-band non-pulsed pulse trains. A frequency modulated pre-pulse precedes the narrow-band pulse train. A frequency-modulated post-pulse usually follows the pulse train of the male courtship song. The male calling song triggers broad-band pulse trains of the female courtship song. The female also produces a repelling low-frequency vibration that inhibits male calling and courtship. The male rival song is characterised by prolonged pulses with a typical frequency modulation.
Green stink bug Nezara viridula courtship songs are transmitted through plants as substrate vibrations. The amplitude of the vibrations is different at different distances from the source of ...vibration and at different locations on the plant. Amplitudes of the local vibration were measured on stem and petioli of the bean plant (Phaseolus vulgaris) with a Laser-Doppler vibrometer. Differences of the amplitudes of vibration between adjacent points around the nodes were large enough to release differential nerve activities of vibration receptor cells of different legs. There was no correlation between the signal amplitude and the distance from the singing bug, however; the differences in amplitudes of vibrations between the stem and the adjacent petioli of leaves potentially permitted direction finding in the green stink bug males.
Males and females of the green stink bug Nezara viridula produce species and sex specific vibrational signals. The songs of bugs from geographically isolated population differ in their temporal ...characteristics. Hybrids were produced between the bugs from Brazilian and Slovenian populations in order to examine the levels of genetic inheritance of their vibratory songs. Hybrid males and females produced songs which are distinctly different from parental songs and these differences can be attributable to genetic factor. The results show that in some parameters the hybrid songs are intermediate between the parental types. Several song parameters are apparently sex-linked. It remains to be established whether observed genetically determined differences in vibratory songs also indicate that cryptic species exist within the taxon N. viridula.
This chapter presents vibratory mechanisms, structures, and signals in relation to behavior. Insects communicate by mechanical signals propagating through a medium as near- or far-field airborne ...sound, substrate vibrations, underwater sound, and/or water surface vibration. Vibrational signaling through substrate is most commonly used whether counted by species, family or phylogenetic distribution. Insects produce vibratory signals by percussion, vibration of the body or its part, tymbal mechanisms, or stridulation. Percussion is common because of the hard exoskeleton, which enables either percussion of two body parts or striking against a substrate. The percussive structures are in most cases relatively simple. Book lice (Psocoptera) and stoneflies (Plecoptera) tap their abdomens against the substrate, Orthoptera use their legs, and termites and beetles drum with their heads. Tremulatory signals are produced by an insect with legs kept firmly on the substrate and jerky movement of the whole body without touching the substrate. In meadow katydids, larger males produce tremulatory signals with shorter inter-pulse intervals; females prefer sequences with shorter inter-pulse intervals indicating that tremulatory signals encode information on body size. Low-frequency signals can be emitted also by vibration of some body parts. The most sensitive and specialized receptor for substrate vibrations, the subgenual organ, is derived evolutionarily from chordotonal organs in the body and appendage joints. It has been found in all Pterygote insects, except Coleoptera and Diptera.
