@article {53110, title = {Marking by elytral clip changes stridulatory characteristics and reduces reproduction in the American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus}, journal = {Journal of Insect Conservation}, volume = {19}, year = {2015}, month = {Jan-02-2015}, pages = {155 - 162}, abstract = {

Some insects produce and use sound during multiple behaviors including many aspects of reproduction. Variation in call structure depends on the evolved mor- phological structures used to produce the sound and encode function. Beetles in the genus Nicrophorus produce strid- ulation by rubbing plectra, located on the ventral side of the elytra, against a pars stridens, located on the caudal end on the fourth and fifth abdominal segment in females and males, respectively. During field surveys for the endan- gered N. americanus, survey crews have historically used a small V-shaped notch cut in the caudal end of the right elytron to serves as a permanent marking method. No study, however, has examined the effect of this marking technique on the characters of stridulation or consequences
for reproductive behavior and fitness. Here we show that one temporal and one spectral character of sound change significantly following elytron clipping, and that repro- ductive success is significantly decreased in all breedings in which a parent beetle is elytron-clipped. We recommend replacement of this marking technique with non-invasive methods to ensure conservation of this endangered species.

}, keywords = {bioacoustics, Elytron clipping, Marking technique, Nicrophorus americanus, stridulation}, issn = {1366-638X}, doi = {10.1007/s10841-015-9755-8}, url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10841-015-9755-8}, author = {Hall, Carrie L. and Howard, Daniel R. and Smith, Rosemary J. and Mason, Andrew C.} } @article {53107, title = {Description of Acoustic Characters and Stridulatory Pars Stridens of Nicrophorus (Coleoptera: Silphidae): A Comparison of Eight North American Species}, journal = {Annals of the Entomological Society of America}, volume = {106}, year = {2013}, month = {Jan-09-2013}, pages = {661 - 669}, abstract = {

Insects make use of sound in a variety of behavioral and reproductive contexts. Acoustic signals are known to serve in defense, sexual advertisement, prey location, and in cooperative activities such as offspring care and group foraging. In airborne signals produced by insects, information associated with species identi\Þcation is often related to the temporal structure of the sound, while spectral quality is more closely associated with intraspeci\Þc variation. The Nicrophorine burying beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera: Silphidae) are a group known to produce sound through dorso-ventro stridulation, but the bioacoustics of this group remains understudied. Here, we examine the stridu- latory sound produced by eight North American species of Nicrophorus burying beetles, testing the hypothesis that interspeci\Þc differences will be encoded in temporal characteristics of the sound, and that signal divergence will be explained by one of three mechanisms: selection as an intraspeci\Þc signal, selection for interspeci\Þc aposematism, or random divergence through drift. We digitally recorded stridulation in each species, and analyzed recordings to describe each in respect to four spectral and eight temporal acoustic characters. All species produced a low amplitude biphastic sound pulse consisting of from 58 to 126 syllables, and exhibiting weak dominant frequencies (5.8\Ð12.7 kHz). Collapsing the 12 variables into three rotated factors using principal component analysis, we found no sex-related differences in sound, but signi\Þcant interspecies divergence in respect to all three factors. We constructed a phylogeny for the group based on the morphology of the stridulatory structures and the acoustic characters, and found weak support for an intraspeci\Þc signal divergence model.

}, keywords = {bioacoustics, burying beetle, Nicrophorus, sound production, stridulation}, issn = {00138746}, doi = {10.1603/AN13001}, url = {https://academic.oup.com/aesa/article-lookup/doi/10.1603/AN13001}, author = {Hall, Carrie L. and Mason, Andrew C. and Howard, Daniel R. and Padhi, Abinash and Smith, Rosemary J.} }