Sound vs. light: wing-based communication in Carboniferous insects.

ABSTRACT: Acoustic communication is well-known in insects since the Mesozoic, but earlier evidence of this behavior is rare. Titanoptera, an 'orthopteroid' Permian-Triassic order, is one of the few candidates for Paleozoic intersex calling interactions: some specimens had highly specialized broadened zones on the forewings, which are currently considered-despite inconclusive evidence-as 'resonators' of a stridulatory apparatus. Here we argue that the stridulatory apparatus hypothesis is unlikely because the Titanoptera lack a stridulatory file on their bodies, legs or wings. Instead, comparing these broadened zones with similar structures in extant locusts, flies, and fossil damselflies, we find evidence that the Titanoptera used their wings to produce flashes of light and/or crepitated sounds. More

SUBMITTER: Schubnel T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8266802 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature