Christian A. Pulver
Ear pinnae in a neotropical katydid (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) function as ultrasound guides for bat detection
Pulver, Christian A.; Celiker, Emine; Woodrow, Charlie; Geipel, Inga; Soulsbury, Carl D.; Cullen, Darron A.; Rogers, Stephen M.; Veitch, Daniel; Montealegre-Z, Fernando
Authors
Emine Celiker
Charlie Woodrow
Inga Geipel
Carl D. Soulsbury
Dr Darron Cullen D.Cullen@hull.ac.uk
Lecturer in Biological Sciences
Stephen M. Rogers
Daniel Veitch
Fernando Montealegre-Z
Abstract
Early predator detection is a key component of the predator-prey arms race and has driven the evolution of multiple animal hearing systems. Katydids (Insecta) have sophisticated ears, each consisting of paired tympana on each foreleg that receive sound both externally, through the air, and internally via a narrowing ear canal running through the leg from an acoustic spiracle on the thorax. These ears are pressure-time difference receivers capable of sensitive and accurate directional hearing across a wide frequency range. Many katydid species have cuticular pinnae which form cavities around the outer tympanal surfaces, but their function is unknown. We investigated pinnal function in the katydid Copiphora gorgonensis by combining experimental biophysics and numerical modelling using 3D ear geometries. We found that the pinnae in C. gorgonensis do not assist in directional hearing for conspecific call frequencies, but instead act as ultrasound detectors. Pinnae induced large sound pressure gains (20–30 dB) that enhanced sound detection at high ultrasonic frequencies (>60 kHz), matching the echolocation range of co-occurring insectivorous gleaning bats. These findings were supported by behavioural and neural audiograms and pinnal cavity resonances from live specimens, and comparisons with the pinnal mechanics of sympatric katydid species, which together suggest that katydid pinnae primarily evolved for the enhanced detection of predatory bats.
Citation
Pulver, C. A., Celiker, E., Woodrow, C., Geipel, I., Soulsbury, C. D., Cullen, D. A., Rogers, S. M., Veitch, D., & Montealegre-Z, F. (2022). Ear pinnae in a neotropical katydid (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) function as ultrasound guides for bat detection. eLife, 11, Article e77628. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.77628
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Sep 2, 2022 |
Online Publication Date | Sep 28, 2022 |
Publication Date | Sep 1, 2022 |
Deposit Date | Sep 25, 2023 |
Publicly Available Date | Sep 27, 2023 |
Journal | eLife |
Electronic ISSN | 2050-084X |
Publisher | eLife Sciences Publications |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 11 |
Article Number | e77628 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.77628 |
Public URL | https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4399070 |
Files
Published article
(6.1 Mb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright Statement
Copyright Pulver, Celiker et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
You might also like
Sexual repurposing of juvenile aposematism in locusts
(2022)
Journal Article
Oxytocin/vasopressin-like neuropeptide signaling in insects
(2019)
Book Chapter
Extracellular nutrient digestion and absorption in the insect gut
(2019)
Journal Article
Born to win or bred to lose: aggressive and submissive behavioural profiles in crickets
(2016)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Repository@Hull
Administrator e-mail: repository@hull.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search