Double meaning of courtship song in a moth

Nakano, Ryo; Ihara, Fumio; Mishiro, Koji; Toyama, Masatoshi; Toda, Satoshi

doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.0840

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(67 reference statements)

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“…This specific "wing-raising" reaction is essential for copulation triggering the male's landing and attempting genital coupling. Wing-raising is evoked by any "long" ultrasonic pulse with duration of >200 ms (Nakano et al 2014) (Fig. 3c).…”

Section: Loud Sounds For Intraspecific Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moth hearing and sound communication

2014

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Active echolocation enables bats to orient and hunt the night sky for insects. As a counter-measure against the severe predation pressure many nocturnal insects have evolved ears sensitive to ultrasonic bat calls. In moths bat-detection was the principal purpose of hearing, as evidenced by comparable hearing physiology with best sensitivity in the bat echolocation range, 20-60 kHz, across moths in spite of diverse ear morphology. Some eared moths subsequently developed sound-producing organs to warn/startle/jam attacking bats and/or to communicate intraspecifically with sound. Not only the sounds for interaction with bats, but also mating signals are within the frequency range where bats echolocate, indicating that sound communication developed after hearing by "sensory exploitation". Recent findings on moth sound communication reveal that close-range (~ a few cm) communication with low-intensity ultrasounds "whispered" by males during courtship is not uncommon, contrary to the general notion of moths predominantly being silent. Sexual sound communication in moths may apply to many eared moths, perhaps even a majority. The low intensities and high frequencies explain that this was overlooked, revealing a bias towards what humans can sense, when studying (acoustic) communication in animals.

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Section: Loud Sounds For Intraspecific Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moth hearing and sound communication

2014

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“…In moths, multiple males may gather around a single female that is releasing a sex pheromone in advance of a mating bout (Baker, 1983;Schlaepfer and McNeil, 2000;Nakano et al, 2014). Hence, singing males would gain the benefit of avoidance of eavesdropping by emitting low-amplitude courtship songs that can be detected only by a female in close proximity to the singer.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Loudness–Duration Tradeoff in Ultrasonic Courtship Songs of Moths

Nakano

Nagamine

2019

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Moths have evolved auditory channels under predation pressure from insectivorous bats that emit ultrasonic pulses for capturing prey, including moths. Tympanate moths perform evasive behavior in response to echolocation calls of bats, but they also utilize ultrasonic signals mostly generated by males close to an intended female mate in the context of courtship. Unlike calling songs used to advertise the presence and sexual attractiveness of the signaler, courtship songs need not always be acoustically conspicuous. Male courtship songs are predominantly soft but sufficient for detection by a nearby potential mate. Quiet courtship songs are thought to effectively avoid being eavesdropped by gleaning bats, acoustic parasitoids, and conspecific competitors, i.e., rival males. However, males of some moth species generate loud courtship songs. In the present study, the duration of courtship song, in addition to the sound level of the song was predicted to affect the likelihood of being perceived by eavesdroppers. Loud and lengthy courtship songs, which are easily exploited by eavesdroppers, would be expected to rarely evolve, because a female receiver close to a male emitting a conspicuous song would also be exposed to strong predation pressure. This study explored the relationship between the peak sound level and the duration of single song bouts in 26 moth species from the following families: Noctuidae, Erebidae, Crambidae, Pyralidae, and Geometridae. The softest and loudest songs with mean peak sound levels of 64 and 129 dB peSPL had mean durations of 1,900 and 312 ms, respectively, whereas the shortest and longest songs with mean durations of 110 and 8,839 ms had mean peak sound levels of 102 and 74 dB peSPL, respectively. The peak sound level and duration of courtship song exhibited a significant negative relationship across species. Although the energetic cost of producing song and the size of the sound-producing organ might also affect the relationship, the data support the conclusion that acoustic moths have adaptively evolved ultrasonic courtship songs with properties between "soft-and-long" and "loud-and-short" to avoid eavesdroppers.

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“…The yellow peach moth Conogethes punctiferalis (Pyralidae), for example, uses two types of calls: one long, 304 ms, and one short, 28 ms. The short call which mimics the echolocating signal of the sympatric horseshoe bat is assumed to be used for discouraging other males to approach the scene whereas the long call increases mate acceptance by the female as indicated by wing raising (Nakano et al, 2014).…”

Section: Ultrasound Co-opted For Intraspecific Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simple ears – flexible behavior: Information processing in the moth auditory pathway

et al. 2015

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Lepidoptera evolved tympanic ears in response to echolocating bats. Comparative studies have shown that moth ears evolved many times independently from chordotonal organs. With only 1 to 4 receptor cells, they are one of the simplest hearing organs. The small number of receptors does not imply simplicity, neither in behavior nor in the neural circuit. Behaviorally, the response to ultrasound is far from being a simple reflex. Moths' escape behavior is modulated by a variety of cues, especially pheromones, which can alter the auditory response. Neurally the receptor cell(s) diverges onto many interneurons, enabling parallel processing and feature extraction. Ascending interneurons and sound-sensitive brain neurons innervate a neuropil in the ventrolateral protocerebrum. Further, recent electrophysiological data provides the first glimpses into how the acoustic response is modulated as well as how ultrasound influences the other senses. So far, the auditory pathway has been studied in noctuids.The findings agree well with common computational principles found in other insects. However, moth ears also show unique mechanical and neural adaptation. Here, we first describe the variety of moths' auditory behavior, especially the co-option of ultrasonic signals for intraspecific communication. Second, we describe the current knowledge of the neural pathway gained from noctuid moths. Finally, we argue that Galleriinae which show negative and positive phonotaxis, are an interesting model species for future electrophysiological studies of the auditory pathway and multimodal sensory integration, and so are ideally suited for the study of the evolution of behavioral mechanisms given a few receptors [Current Zoology 61 (2): 292-302, 2015].

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Double meaning of courtship song in a moth

Cited by 14 publications

References 43 publications

Moth hearing and sound communication

Moth hearing and sound communication

Loudness–Duration Tradeoff in Ultrasonic Courtship Songs of Moths

Simple ears – flexible behavior: Information processing in the moth auditory pathway

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