Mutual Behavioral Adjustment in Vibrational Duetting

Abstract

Animal communication often involves a back-and-forth of influence between the sexes. Not only do males produce signals to court females–females often reply back, as is the case in many plant-feeding insects. Here, we explore the behavioral complexity that arises from these interactions. We examine the potential for substrate-borne vibrational duetting insects to serve as case studies of the evolution and evolutionary consequences of mutual influence between the sexes, including mutual mate choice. Female mate choice on the basis of male signals has been documented in several species of insects that communicate via substrate-borne vibration, but it is less clear how often males modify their behavior (up to and including male mate choice) on the basis of variation in female vibrational signals. We assessed the potential for the signals of one sex to influence the behavior of the other sex with a literature review in which we compared the signals used by males and females in vibrational duetting. We found that female signals were at least as long and variable as male signals, although male signals often had more components than female signals. Thus, it seems likely that female vibrational duetting behavior is involved in proximate and evolutionary dynamics involving mutual influence and stimulation between the sexes.

Appendix

Mean and coefficient of variation for signal length and dominant frequency for males and females of the vibrational duetting species used in the analysis. A dash indicates that data were not available from the references given

Taxon	Sex	Call type	Call length		Dominant frequency		Number of components	References
			Mean (s)	CV	Mean (Hz)	CV
C oleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Aphodius ater	F	–	0.06	19.2	–	–	–	Hirschberger and Rohrseitz (1995)
	M	–	0.05	21.7	–	–	–	Hirschberger and Rohrseitz (1995)
H emiptera
Aleyrodidae
Aleurothrixus floccosus	F	Iriomote Island	0.28	21.57	300.6	1.99	1	Kanmiya and Sonobe (2002)
	M	Iriomote Island	0.25	12.42	294.6	2.27	1	2002
	F	Ishigaki Island	0.31	12.53	308.1	2.92	–	Kanmiya and Sonobe (2002)
	M	Ishigaki Island	0.22	21.58	292.6	5.53	–	Kanmiya and Sonobe (2002)
Cicadellidae
Aphrodes makarovi	F	–	15.42	39.56	–	–	1	de Groot et al. (2011)
	M	–	13.43	24.49	–	–	3	de Groot et al. (2011)
Graphocephala atropunctata	F	–	0.51	25.24	203	31.53	–	Percy et al. (2008)
	M	–	1.17	19.66	235	28.93	–	Percy et al. (2008)
Homalodisca liturata	F	–	1.23	11.38	95	10.52	–	Percy et al. (2008)
	M	–	1.26	7.143	95	10.52	–	Percy et al. (2008)
Scaphoideus titanus	F	Call 1	–	–	150.5	32.29	1	Mazzoni et al. (2009)
	F	Call 2	–	–	137.7	40.74	–	Mazzoni et al. (2009)
	M	Call 1	6.2	30.64	158.8	27.01	3	Mazzoni et al. (2009)
	M	Call 2	4.6	19.56	–	–	–	Mazzoni et al. (2009)
Cixiidae
Hyalesthes obsoletus	F	–	0.25	7.69	287	53.65	1	Mazzoni et al. (2010)
	M	Syllable 1	0.17	11.36	576	41.14	2	Mazzoni et al. (2010)
	M	Syllable 2	0.26	14.44	292	53.42	2	Mazzoni et al. (2010)
	M	Syllable 3	0.29	14.96	447	34.67	2	Mazzoni et al. (2010)
	M	Syllable 4	0.23	13.04	379	40.63	–	Mazzoni et al. (2010)
Flatidae
Metcalfa pruinosa	F	Call	2.34	22.22	463	23.11	–	Virant-Doberlet and Žežlina (2007)
	M	Call	2.35	20	442	27.61	–	Virant-Doberlet and Žežlina (2007)
	M	Phrase pulse train 1	4.31	31.55	414	27.05	–	Virant-Doberlet and Žežlina (2007)
	M	Phrase pulse train 2	2.39	12.55	446	25.11	–	Virant-Doberlet and Žežlina (2007)
Membracidae
Enchenopa binotata ‘Celastrus’	F	–	0.7	18.7	215	5.4	1	Rodriguez and Cocroft 2006
	M	–	0.52	15.43	451	7.97	2	Rodriguez and Cocroft (2006)
Enchenopa binotata ‘Cercis’	F	–	0.79	24.8	118	26.9	1	Rodriguez and Cocroft (2006)
	M	–	0.79	18.05	146	9.9	2	Rodriguez and Cocroft (2006)
Enchenopa binotata ‘Ptelea’	F	–	0.61	18.2	167	6.6	1	Rodriguez and Cocroft (2006)
	M	–	0.45	16.54	333	2.64	2	Rodriguez and Cocroft (2006)
Enchenopa binotata   ‘Viburnum rufidulum’	F	–	0.84	26.3	329	58.4	1	Rodriguez and Cocroft (2006)
	M	–	0.78	16.41	285	4.48	2	Rodriguez and Cocroft (2006)
Pentatomidae
Acrosternum hilare	F	Song	0.64	26.17	82	2.44	1	Cokl et al. (2001)
	M	Call 1	0.94	0.53	120	6.66	2	Moraes et al. (2005)
	M	Song 1	2.31	20.09	–	–	1	Moraes et al. (2005)
Acrosternum impicticorne	F	Call 1	0.81	4.19	133	3.01	1	Moraes et al. (2005)
	F	Call 2	1.13	16.82	109	5.51	1	Moraes et al. (2005)
	M	Call 2	0.94	5.75	130	1.54	1	Moraes et al. (2005)
Euschistus heros	F	Call 1	0.95	19.30	145	4.82	2	Moraes et al. (2005)
	F	Call 2	5.66	21.15	157	4.46	1	Moraes et al. (2005)
	M	Call 1	1.75	34.05	137	8.76	1	Moraes et al. (2005)
	M	Call 2	4.41	13.20	136	9.56	1	Moraes et al. (2005)
	M	Call 3	0.05	16.66	175	2.86	–	Moraes et al. (2005)
Nezara viridula	F	Calling song broad band	0.13	35.15	109	–	–	Cokl et al. (2000)
	F	Calling song narrow band	1.66	21.91	99	–	–	Cokl et al. (2000)
	F	Courtship song	3.91	30.19	91	–	1	Cokl et al. (2000)
	M	Calling song broad band	0.12	28.09	109	–	–	Cokl et al. (2000)
	M	Calling song narrow band	0.26	36.5	96	–	–	Cokl et al. (2000)
	M	Courtship song	3.11	24.08	90	–	1	Cokl et al. (2000)
Piezodorus guildinii	F	Call 1	4.91	13.06	168	5.95	1	Moraes et al. (2005)
	F	Call 2	4.63	4.32	131	1.52	1	Moraes et al. (2005)
	M	Call 1	0.02	20.83	117	8.54	1	Moraes et al. (2005)
Thyanta custator accerra	F	Song 1	0.34	19.28	102	3.92	1	McBrien et al. (2002)
	F	Song 2	3.08	69.91	97	12.37	1	McBrien et al. (2002)
	M	Song 1	0.46	36.77	97	7.21	1	McBrien et al. (2002)
	M	Song 2	2.44	32.28	95	6.31	1	McBrien et al. (2002)
	M	Song 3	9.89	30.55	98	8.16	1	McBrien et al. (2002)
	M	Song 4	0.12	17.46	99	9.09	1	McBrien et al. (2002)
Thyanta pallidovirens	F	Song 1	0.21	30.62	100	7	1	McBrien et al. (2002)
	F	Song 2	3.41	39.37	105	4.76	1	McBrien et al. (2002)
	M	Song 1	0.34	24.18	101	2.97	1	McBrien et al. (2002)
	M	Song 2	3.36	20.27	96	5.21	1	McBrien et al. (2002)
Thyanta perditor	F	Call 1	13.41	14.49			1	Moraes et al. (2005)
	F	Call 2, long	1.46	43.09	84	4.76	2	Moraes et al. (2005)
	F	Call 2, short	0.71	40.84	83	4.82	–	Moraes et al. (2005)
	M	Call 1	7.1	9.80	122	12.29	1	Moraes et al. (2005)
	M	Call 2	3.39	29.20	109	11.01	2	Moraes et al. (2005)
	M	Call 3	2.11	21.80	70	10	–	Moraes et al. (2005)
Triozidae
Aacanthocnema dobsoni	F	–	0.24	8.33	925	4.64	1	Percy et al. (2006)
	M	–	1.48	25.67	698	62.17	1	Percy et al. (2006)
Schedotrioza apicobystra	F	–	0.75	10.66	499	23.64	1	Percy et al. (2006)
	M	–	1.19	10.92	615	13.65	2	Percy et al. (2006)
Schedotrioza distorta	F	–	0.23	17.39	315	36.82	1	Percy et al. (2006)
	M	–	0.33	15.15	576	21.52	1	Percy et al. (2006)
Schedotrioza marginata	F	–	0.34	8.82	614	9.44	1	Percy et al. (2006)
	M	–	0.46	8.69	683	19.18	2	Percy et al. (2006)
Schedotrioza multitudinea	F	–	0.3	13.33	602	9.63	1	Percy et al. (2006)
	M	–	0.43	32.55	869	19.56	2	Percy et al. (2006)
Schedotrioza, sp. nov.	F	–	0.7	10	268	73.13	–	Percy et al. (2006)
	M	–	1.09	8.256	765	14.25	–	Percy et al. (2006)
Trioza, sp. nov.	M	–	0.18	5.55	690	4.92	–	Percy et al. (2006)
Trioza, sp. nov.	F	–	1.18	16.10	1096	0.82	–	Percy et al. (2006)
N europtera
Chrysopidae
Chrysoperla nipponensis type B	M	Site1	2.14	16.82	–	–	–	Henry et al. (2009)
Chrysoperla nipponensis type B	F	Site1	1.99	19.09	–	–	–	Henry et al. (2009)
Chrysoperla nipponensis type A	F	Site2	5.4	16.29	–	–	–	Henry et al. (2009)
Chrysoperla nipponensis type A	M	Site2	5.43	18.60	–	–	–	Henry et al. (2009)
O rthoptera
Gryllacrididae
Hadrogryllacris sp, undescribed species	F	–	0.8	27.5	–	–	1	Field and Bailey (1997)
	M	–	0.45	22.22	–	–	1	Field and Bailey (1997)