TY - JOUR T1 - Dung beetle distress signals may be correlated with sex and male morph: a case study on Copris lunaris (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae, Coprini) Y1 - 2020 A1 - Kerman, Kaan A1 - Roggero, Angela A1 - Piccini, Irene A1 - Rolando, Antonio A1 - Palestrini, Claudia KW - bioacoustics KW - dung beetles KW - elytro-abdominal stridulatory organ KW - male dimorphism KW - pars stridens KW - plectrum AB -

Insect sounds are predominantly produced by stridulations, where specialised body parts contact repeatedly to induce acoustic pulse trains. We studied the stridulatory organ and sound emissions in Copris lunaris, by focussing separately on females, and on major and minor males. Results highlighted an isometric growth of pars stridens in response to body size, and identified a wing-pygidium locking structure that assists sound emission. Sex-specific acoustic differences of some degree were detected between major males and females, as sounds emitted by majors showed higher frequencies and shorter pulses with elevated impulse rates. This cannot be immediately explained by size differences in the components of stridulatory apparatus. Rather, divergence might be an indicator of some underlying behavioural difference in response to distressing events. In minor males, acoustic properties overlapped with both females and major males, although incomplete stridulations had a lower ratio in minor than major males. This paper provides the very first perspective of the potential role of sex and male polymorphism on sound production. However, future categorisations of sounds coupled to behavioural observations of specific interactions are needed to reveal the function of sex and morph-specific differences.

UR - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09524622.2019.1710255https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09524622.2019.1710255 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Stridulation variability and morphology: an examination in dung beetles of the genus Trypocopris (Coleoptera, Geotrupidae) JF - Population Ecology Y1 - 2004 A1 - Carisio, Loredana A1 - Palestrini, Claudia A1 - Rolando, Antonio AB - Distress signals produced by dung beetles of the genus Trypocopris (Coleoptera, Geotrupidae) were analysed to test whether interspecific and intraspecific acoustic variability are species- and subspecies-specific and to ascertain to what extent bioacoustic parameters depend upon the morphology of the stridulatory organs (pars stridens). Bioacoustic analyses showed that the three species were clearly differentiated, despite the fact that disturbance stridulations presented the same stereotyped spectrographic pattern. Within each species, most of the subspecies and populations considered were also bioacoustically distinguishable. Subspecies and populations within each species were differentiated with regard to body size and stridulatory organ, and the length of the pars stridens was positively correlated with the width of the coxa, in turn positively correlated with body size. A few spectrographic measures were significantly constrained by the morphology of the stridulatory apparatus; in particular the duration of sound emission was positively correlated with the length of the apparatus and the sub-pulse rate was negatively related to the distance between two consecutive crests. For T. pyrenaeus, with the largest number of populations sampled, there was no significant correlation between morphological and spectrographic distances, but there were significant positive correlations between morphological and geographical distances and between morphological and genetic distances. It is hypothesized that genetic differentiation might directly affect variability of the stridulatory apparata which would also be indirectly influenced and constrained by external morphological traits (like the width of the coxa and body size). Stridulatory organs, in turn, would affect the ways a few stridulatory traits (especially the temporal ones) change in time and space. VL - 46 UR - http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10144-004-0170-3http://www.springerlink.com/index/pdf/10.1007/s10144-004-0170-3 IS - 1 JO - Popul Ecol ER -