SOUND PRODUCTION BY AQUATIC INSECTS

1. Sound production by aquatic insects is found in four orders — Trichoptera, Odonata, Heteroptera and Coleoptera. 2. Immature aquatic insects that produce sound are rare, stridulation being present in one family of Trichoptera (Hydropsychidae) and one genus and species in a relic suborder of Odonata (Anisozygoptera) - Epiophlebia superstes. Hydropsychid larvae produce sound with a head/fore femur mechanism and use sound as part of aggressive behaviour for defence of feeding nets. Larval E. superstes use a hind femur/abdominal mechanism to dissuade predators. 3. Sound production has been documented in adults of all families of aquatic Heteroptera except Helotrephidae. In corixids and notonectids, acoustic signals play a role in mating. Members of the genus Buenoa (Notonectidae) are unique in having two stridulatory mechanisms in the same individual. Sound production has been most intensively studied in the Corixidae. Although sounds are used in mating by all singing corixids, their use seems to be facultative in some species and obligatory in others. Recent experiments by Theiss (1982) have shown that the air stores carried by corixids are used for both sound radiation and reception. 4. The adephagan beetle families Hygrobiidae, Dytiscidae and Haliplidae have all been shown to produce sound. Mechanisms of sound production have been established for haliplids and hygrobiids but have yet to be for most dytiscids. Sound production is used by beetles as part of sequences of aggressive/defensive and reproductive behaviour. 5. Sound production is especially well documented in the Hydrophilidae (Polyphaga). Hydrophilids use an abdominal/elytral mechanism and sound appears to be used in the same contexts as in adephagans. 6. Insects that produce sound under water must contend with the physical problems of sound transmission in a relatively dense, viscous medium with sharp boundaries. Because of potential distortion of the frequency components in a signal by reflection from the air/water interface in very shallow water, frequency is unreliable for encoding information. Aquatic insects use instead amplitude modulation and temporal patterning of signals. 7. For aquatic invertebrates, sound fields are different than those in air because the extent of the near field is approximately four times greater in water. This near field, a region in which displacement waves are predominant over pressure waves, extends to a greater distance than most aquatic insects communicate over. Such displacement waves could have important but as yet unconsidered effects. 8. The mass and viscosity of the water dictates that sound producing structures of aquatic insects should be heavier and more massive than those of terrestrial insects. A survey of stridulatory organs of aquatic insects reveals this to be true and reveals that the relatively fragile, membranous stridulatory organs of some terrestrial insects (especially Orthoptera) are absent. 9. The elaboration of sound producing structures in aquatic insects probably occurred at the family or subfamily level and for Heteroptera, Trichoptera and Odonata evolved after the invasion of the water. Acoustic signals used reproductively would probably be more closely associated with the emergence of new taxa. 10. Stridulatory structures have been derived from either structures devoted to some other function or from structures involved in the behaviour currently enhanced by sound production.     

SOUND PRODUCTION AND SOUND EMISSION IN SEVEN SPECIES OF EUROPEAN TETTIGONIIDS PART III. DETERMINATION OF THE MECHANISM OF SOUND PRODUCTION USING CEPSTRUM ANALYSIS

ABSTRACT

The mechanism of sound production in tettigoniids is examined by applying the method of ‘cepstrum’ analysis to insect calls. The power cepstrum is defined as the inverse Fourier transform of the logarithmic power spectrum. This analysis shows that the tettigoniid sound signal is a convolution in time of probably two components. The first is caused by the initial impact of teeth of the stridulatory file on the left wing against the plectrum on the right wing (termed the input pulse); the second is caused by the oscillating properties of the tegmina (these being a function of the intrinsic frequencies of dorsal fields and mirror and their damping properties). In the cepstrum each component appears as a varying number of peaks. The tooth impacts cause a very low quefrency peak probably representing the time in which the two tegmina are in contact during each impact and high quefrency peaks representing the impulse repetition rate. The oscillating properties of the tegmina cause two major quefrency peaks which can be clearly related to the size of the dorsal fields and of the mirror respectively, and therefore to their intrinsic frequencies. The high damping factor of the tegmina together with the transient shape of the tegminal input pulse causes a strong time limitation of the impulses and is therefore responsible for the broad frequency bands occurring in the power spectra of the tettigoniid songs. The impulse generation of a synthetic tettigoniid song is discussed.     

UNDERWATER SOUND RECORDING OF ANIMALS

ABSTRACT

Underwater sound recording of animals uses specialized techniques to obtain faithful copies of sounds produced by animals during their normal activities underwater. Techniques have to be unobtrusive as well as nondisturbing to avoid changing the animal behaviors. The first scientific recording of underwater sounds from a marine mammal at sea was by William E. Schevill and Barbara Lawrence in 1948. Although the equipment has changed considerably since then, the techniques, approaches to animals and environmental impediments have remained essentially the same. However, the frequency and dynamic ranges of underwater sounds can easily exceed terrestrial sounds, so the selection of suitable equipment is critical. The elements of a useful system for bioacoustic recording of marine animals include the hydrophone, impedance transformer/preamplifier, cable, signal amplifier, recorder and sound monitor. The important criteria for each of these is discussed, along with directional listening systems, and the need for calibrations to verify the performance of the entire underwater recording system. For each situation, the ideal system is the one with the best compromise of interactive components to record that particular sound spectrum.     

DOCUMENTATION STANDARDS FOR WILDLIFE SOUND RECORDINGS

ABSTRACT

Shearwaters are nocturnal seabirds that rely on olfaction and acoustics to communicate at night. Although previous studies have described the vocal repertoire of some shearwater species, there is a need for more precise experimental data investigating the biological relevance of these acoustic signals in this seabird group. The present paper focuses on the vocal behaviour of the Yelkouan shearwater Puffinus yelkouan, a poorly studied species which produces a single major call composed of two notes, a noisy note and a clear one. A quantitative analysis of the calls allowed to extract the acoustic parameters supporting both sexual and individual signatures. Playback experiments were conducted during the incubation period to test the ability of the Yelkouan shearwater (1) to vocally identify the sex of the emitter, and (2) to discriminate the mate from a non-mate. We showed that birds discriminate the sex of the emitter, calling back almost exclusively to calls of birds of the same sex. Among the few birds replying to calls of the opposite sex, females responded to calls of their partner only, whereas males responded equally to calls of the partner or to calls of a non-partner, suggesting that females are vocally more selective than males.     

声音的调幅感受阈

本工作用调幅检测法测定了正常受试者的强度辨别阈(△I)。当载波为白噪声,其强度为阈上20—30dB,调幅信号为一波宽200ms的准矩形波时,△I平均只0.27dB,比以往用白噪声或纯音调幅法和信号比较法测得的结果都小(表1)。改变调幅波的上升下降时间(0—15ms)对△I无明显影响。△I随调幅时程t的增长而变小,并以t达到临界时间T(约100ms)时为极限。此后△I即等于常数K。当t 小于T时,△I与t的函数关系可表达为△I=K(T/t)~(1/2)。     

FRIENDS OF WILDLIFE SOUND AT NSA

ABSTRACT

The problem of categorization arises in any classification system because classes should be discrete while the characteristics of most natural objects and aspects of nature are more or less gradual. In systematics, this problem usually is solved by creating several levels of categories, such as class, order, family, genus and species. In the existing killer whale discrete call classification, only two levels occur—call type and call subtype. In this paper we describe structural categories at a broader level than call type in the discrete sounds of killer whales and compare these categories between and within vocal clans in a community of resident killer whales from Southeast Kamchatka, Russian Far East, and also with killer whales outside this community. We found four main classes of discrete calls in the repertoire of resident killer whales from Southeast Kamchatka. The calls of Southeast Kamchatka transient killer whales and Sakhalin killer whales do not fall into these classes. This suggests that the resident killer whale community from Southeast Kamchatka has some rules defining the structure of calls which are typical for this community. Consequently, all resident killer whales from Southeast Kamchatka can be said to share the same vocal tradition.     

SOUND AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR LABORATORY ANIMALS

1. Several methods of varying accuracy have been used to assess what sounds small laboratory animals such as rodents are capable of hearing. Most rodents can detect sounds from 1000 Hz (the frequency of the Greenwich Time Signal) up to 100000 Hz, depending on the strain, with usually one or more commonly two peaks of sensitivity within this range. Dogs can detect sound most easily from 500 Hz to 55000 Hz, depending on the breed. 2. Rodents also produce sound signals as a behavioural response and for communication in a variety of situations. Ultrasonic calls in the range 22000–70000 Hz are the main communicating pathway during aggressive encounters, mating, and mothering. Similar calls have also been recorded from isolated animals associated with inactivity, rest and possibly even sleep. 3. Very loud sounds cause seizures in rats and mice, or can make them more susceptible to other sounds later in life. This effect is possible even when animals are fully anaesthetized. Sound tends to startle and reduce activity in several species of animal. Even offspring of mice that have been sound-stressed exhibit abnormal behaviour patterns. Sounds also elicit various responses in rats from increasing aggression to making them more tolerant to electric shocks. 4. Levels of sound above 100 dB are teratogenic in several species of animals and several hormonal, haematological and reproductive parameters are disturbed by sounds above 80 dB. When rats are chemically deafened the disturbance to their fertility disappears. Lipid metabolism is disrupted in rats when exposed to over 95 dB of sounds, leading to increases in plasma triglycerides. Atherosclerosis can be produced in rabbits by similar levels of sound. 5. It has also been shown in guinea pigs and cats that hearing damage is governed by the duration as well as the intensity of the sound and is irreversible. Work on chinchillas hs demonstrated that sounds above 95 dB lead to this injury, but that sounds of 80 dB have no permanent effect on hearing sensitivity.