Due to human perceptional bias in favor of airborne sounds, substrate-borne vibrational signaling has been traditionally regarded as a highly specialized, inherently short-range and, consequently, a private communication channel, free from eavesdropping by sexual competitors and predators. In this review, we synthesize current knowledge pertinent to the view that most animals live in a rich vibratory world, where vibrational information is available to unintended receivers. In recent years, we realized that vibrational signaling is one of the oldest and taxonomically most widespread forms of communication by mechanical waves and that receptors detecting substrate vibrations are ubiquitous. In nature, substrate vibrations are reliable source of information readily available to all members of the animal community able to detect them. Viewing vibrational communication in more relevant ecological context reveals that animals relying on substrate vibrations live in complex communication networks. Long evolutionary history of this communication channel is reflected in varied and sophisticated predator-prey interactions guided by substrate-borne vibrations. Eavesdropping and exploitation of vibrational signals used in sexual communication have been so far largely neglected; however, existing studies show that generalist arthropod predators can intercept such signals emitted by insects to obtain information about prey availability and use that information when making foraging decisions. Moreover, males which advertise themselves for longer periods than females and with vibrational signals of higher amplitude face higher predation risk. It is likely that eavesdropping and exploitation of vibrational signals are major drivers in the evolution taking place in the vibratory world and we believe that studies of interspecific interactions guided by substrate vibrations will, in the future, offer numerous opportunities to unravel mechanisms that are central to understanding behavior in general.
Sexual communication in animals often involves duetting characterized by a coordinated reciprocal exchange of acoustic signals. We used playback experiments to study the role of timing of a female reply in the species-specific duet structure in the leafhopper Aphrodes makarovi (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae). In leafhoppers, mate recognition and location is mediated exclusively by species- and sex-specific substrate-borne vibrational signals and a female signal emitted in reply to male advertisement calls is essential for recognition and successful location of the female. In A. makarovi, males have to initiate each exchange of vibrational signals between partners, and in a duet the beginning of a female reply overlaps the end of the male advertisement call. Results of playback treatments in which female replies were delayed and did not overlap with the male call revealed that in order to trigger an appropriate behavioural response of the male, female reply has to appear in a period less than 400 ms after the end of the initiating male call. Results also suggest that males are not able to detect a female reply while calling, since female reply that did not continue after the end of male call triggered male behaviour similar to behaviour observed in the absence of female reply. Together, our results show that vibrational duets are tightly coordinated and that the species-specific duet structure plays an important role in mate recognition in location processes.
In mating systems based on substrate‐borne vibrations, sexual communication often involves a reciprocal exchange of species‐ and sex‐specific vibrational signals and male is searching for a stationary female. In the leafhopper Aphrodes makarovi, female reply is essential for successful location of the female and its variable duration directly affects male's costs associated with signalling and searching. We studied male and female behaviour in a trio situation (two males and one female), and our results show that male–male competition had important effects on male mating success. Females replied equally to advertisement calls emitted by the winning and losing males and mated with the first male that located them, regardless of his investment in calling effort. Males eavesdropped to male–female duet maintained by the rival, and the winners were better at exploiting female replies to the rival's advertisement calls by silently approaching the female. To interfere with the ongoing male–female duet, males also emitted masking signals overlapping the latter part of the female reply. More overlapped female replies were registered in response to the losers and masking signals most likely delay the rival in reaching the female. Our study shows that a comprehensive understanding of male mating success and female preferences in vibrational duetting systems requires also investigations in more complex settings that more realistically represent the situation in nature.
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