@article {57886,
	title = {Matching sender and receiver: poikilothermy and frequency tuning in a tree cricket},
	year = {2011},
	abstract = {<p>Animals communicate in non-ideal and noisy conditions. The primary method they use to improve communication efficiency is sender-receiver matching: the receiver\&$\#$39;s sensory mechanism filters the impinging signal based on the expected signal. In the context of acoustic communication in crickets, such a match is made in the frequency domain. The males broadcast a mate attraction signal, the calling song, in a narrow frequency band centred on the carrier frequency (CF), and the females are most sensitive to sound close to this frequency. In tree crickets, however, the CF changes with temperature. The mechanisms used by female tree crickets to accommodate this change in CF were investigated at the behavioural and biomechanical level. At the behavioural level, female tree crickets were broadly tuned and responded equally to CFs produced within the naturally occurring range of temperatures (18 to 27\&deg;C). To allow such a broad response, however, the transduction mechanisms that convert sound into mechanical and then neural signals must also have a broad response. The tympana of the female tree crickets exhibited a frequency response that was even broader than suggested by the behaviour. Their tympana vibrate with equal amplitude to frequencies spanning nearly an order of magnitude. Such a flat frequency response is unusual in biological systems and cannot be modelled as a simple mechanical system. This feature of the tree cricket auditory system not only has interesting implications for mate choice and species isolation but may also prove exciting for bio-mimetic applications such as the design of miniature low frequency microphones.</p>
},
	keywords = {frequency tuning, hearing, Oecanthinae, tree crickets},
	doi = {10.1242/jeb.057612},
	url = {http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/doi/10.1242/jeb.057612https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1242/jeb.057612},
	author = {Mhatre, N. and Bhattacharya, M. and Daniel Robert and Rohini Balakrishnan}
}
@article {57622,
	title = {Tuning the drum: the mechanical basis for frequency discrimination in a Mediterranean cicada},
	year = {2006},
	abstract = {<p>Cicadas are known to use sound to find a mate. While the mechanism employed by male cicadas to generate loud calling songs has been described in detail, little information exists to explain how their ears work. Using microscanning laser Doppler vibrometry, the tympanal vibrations in the cicada Cicadatra atra are measured in response to acoustic playbacks. The topographically accurate optical measurements reveal the vibrational behaviour of the anatomically complex tympanal membrane. Notably, the tympanal ridge, a distinct structural element of the tympanum that is a link to the receptor cells, undergoes mechanical vibrations reminiscent of a travelling wave. In effect, the frequency for which the maximum deflection amplitude is observed regularly decreases from the apex to the base of the ridge. It is also shown that whilst female ears are mechanically tuned to the male\&$\#$39;s song, the male\&$\#$39;s tympanum is only partially tuned to its own song. This study establishes the presence of a peripheral auditory mechanism that can potentially process auditory frequency analysis. In view of the importance of acoustic signalling in cicadas, this unconventional tympanal mechanism may be employed in the context of species recognition and sexual selection.</p>
},
	keywords = {biomechanics, Cicada, frequency discrimination, hearing, travelling wave, tympanum},
	author = {Sueur, Jerome and James F.C. Windmill and Daniel Robert}
}
