Tree crickets optimize the acoustics of baffles to exaggerate their mate-attraction signal.

ABSTRACT: Object manufacture in insects is typically inherited, and believed to be highly stereotyped. Optimization, the ability to select the functionally best material and modify it appropriately for a specific function, implies flexibility and is usually thought to be incompatible with inherited behaviour. Here, we show that tree-crickets optimize acoustic baffles, objects that are used to increase the effective loudness of mate-attraction calls. We quantified the acoustic efficiency of all baffles within the naturally feasible design space using finite-element modelling and found that design affects efficiency significantly. We tested the baffle-making behaviour of tree crickets in a series of experimental contexts. We found that given the opportunity, tree crickets optimised baffle acoustics; t

SUBMITTER: Mhatre N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5764570 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature