@article {47313, title = {No phenotypic signature of acoustic competition in songs of a tropical cricket assemblage}, journal = {Behavioral Ecology}, volume = {27}, year = {2016}, month = {Jul-01-20162017}, pages = {211 - 218}, abstract = {

Efficient acoustic communication in multispecies assemblages is challenging due to the presence of heterospecific signals. Masking
interference and signal confusion of similarly structured signals can impose fitness costs and, thus, drive evolutionary processes that
shape acoustic signals to reduce their overlap in signal space. Although the partitioning of signal space has been frequently studied
in frog and bird communities, this topic has received much less attention with reference to insects that communicate acoustically. In
this study, we examined the role of acoustic competition in a tropical cricket community and tested the following hypotheses: 1) cosig-
naling\  species\  are\  expected\  to\  exhibit\  more\  dissimilar\  calling\  songs\  as\  compared\  with\  species\  that\  are\  spatially\  and/or\  temporally\ 
separated\  and\  2)\  species\  signaling\  with\  similar\  song\  frequencies,\  who\  are\  thereby\  subject\  to\  energetic\  masking,\  are\  more\  likely\  to\ 
differ\  in\  the\  temporal\  domain\  of\  their\  calling\  songs.\  Using\  non-metric\  multidimensional\  scaling\  and\  pairwise\  comparison\  methods\  to\ 
measure\  acoustic\  dissimilarity,\  we\  found\  no\  evidence\  for\  either\  hypothesis:\  the\  acoustic\  signals\  of\  species\  pairs\  that\  cosignaled\  or\ 
used similar calling frequencies did not significantly differ from those of species that were spatially/temporally segregated or had large
song frequency differences. In conclusion, for the acoustically communicating cricket community investigated, no supportive evidence
for the partitioning hypothesis and the widespread belief that acoustic competition has led to divergent selection pressures on signal
structure to avoid masking interference was found. Instead, we argue that selection pressures on sensory/neuronal mechanisms seem
to more strongly drive reliable communication.

}, keywords = {acoustic assemblages, acoustic masking interference, acoustic communication, insects, signal divergence, signal space partitioning}, issn = {1045-2249}, doi = {10.1093/beheco/arv141}, url = {https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/beheco/arv141https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/27/1/211/1744419/No-phenotypic-signature-of-acoustic-competition-in}, author = {Riede, Klaus} }