Wing stridulation in a Jurassic katydid (Insecta, Orthoptera) produced low-pitched musical calls to attract females

Publication Type:Journal Article
Year of Publication:2012
Authors:Gu, Montealegre-Zapata, Robert, Engel, Qiao, Ren
Journal:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume:109
Questão:10
Pagination:3868 - 3873
Date Published:Jun-03-2012
ISSN:0027-8424
Palavras-chave:biological asymmetry, biomechanics, bushcricket, call evolution, Tettigoniidae
Abstract:

Behaviors are challenging to reconstruct for extinct species, particularly the nature and origins of acoustic communication. Here we unravel the song of Archaboilus musicus Gu, Engel and Ren sp. nov., a 165 million year old stridulating katydid. From the exceptionally preserved morphology of its stridulatory apparatus in the forewings and phylogenetic comparison with extant species, we reveal that A. musicus radiated pure-tone (musical) songs using a resonant mechanism tuned at a frequency of 6.4 kHz. Contrary to previous scenarios, musical songs were an early innovation, preceding the broad-bandwidth songs of extant katydids. Providing an accurate insight into paleoacoustic ecology, the low-frequency musical song of A. musicus was well-adapted to communication in the lightly cluttered environment of the mid-Jurassic forest produced by coniferous trees and giant ferns, suggesting that reptilian, amphibian, and mammalian insectivores could have also heard A. musicus' song.

URL:http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1118372109
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1118372109
Short Title:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
BioAcoustica ID: 
Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith