High-frequency airborne sound is quickly absorbed in vegetation, and outside the plant shelter such signals attract predators. Furthermore, small insects cannot emit efficiently low-frequency airborne sound when their diameter is smaller than a third of the radiated wavelength. For plant-dwelling insects, substrate-borne sound signaling remains the best solution for communication in dense vegetation typical for the tropics. Communication range in such an environment depends on tuning of vibratory signal properties with mechanical characteristics of plants and sensory abilities to extract the information from the environmental noise. Nezara viridula and other until now investigated species of the stink bug family Pentatomidae represent the model for solutions optimizing long-range communication through green plants. They communicate with vibratory signals of the dominant frequency around 100 Hz, which travel through plants with low attenuation, creating standing wave conditions in the plant’s rod-like structures. Green plants act as low-pass filter and their resonant peaks fit well with the spectral peaks of stink bug vibratory emissions. The species’ leg sensory organs with the underlying neural network are sensitive enough to enable communication through a plant on a distance of several meters. Comparative data on substrate-borne sound communication in burrower (Cydnidae) and predatory (Asopinae) bugs will be discussed.
Abstract. Males of the harlequin bug, Murgantia histrionica (Hahn), produce five different vibrational songs, whereas females produce one song. Songs differ from those of other stink bugs primarily in their species‐specific temporal characteristics. The broad band male courtship songs of M. histrionica are achieved by a combination of different frequency modulated and/or narrow band subunits, with several higher harmonic frequencies. Males rather than females initiate substrate‐borne vibrational communication, and the longer‐range calling songs found typically in other pentatomid species are lacking. Interindividual differences in song temporal and spectral characteristics are discussed. Transmission of vibrational songs through a cabbage head is more efficient along veins than along lamina. Attenuation of signals transmitted through veins is low and similar to that reported previously for plant stalks. On the leaf vein, distances between peak amplitude minima and maxima are different for the dominant and subdominant frequencies. At any distance from the vibration source, a different relationship between spectral peak amplitudes can be recorded. Resolution of these differences, together with velocity differences between signals recorded on the vein and lamina, may help small stink bugs to estimate distance and to locate each other on a plant.
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