In insects various ways to produce sounds have evolved for communication both within and between
species. Cicada males are particularly known for their loud and diverse songs which are produced by
tymbal organs. Females of some cicada species can produce sounds by wing flicking in response to male
calls. The cicada species Subpsaltria yangi is unusual in that, besides the tymbal organs of males, it has
well-developed stridulatory organs that are found in both sexes. Here, we investigated sound production
and mating behaviour of this cicada species. We show that, in the context of pair formation, females
produced sound signals by stridulation in response to advertisement signals produced by males with
tymbal organs. We also found that the sounds produced by male cicadas with stridulatory organs were
extremely similar in acoustic structure to those of females, which indicates that males mimic the signals
produced by females during pair formation. Acoustic playback experiments suggested that, by producing
female-like sound signals, a male could deceive a receptive female into treating him as a rival female,
which makes the male more effective in eliciting acoustic responses from the receptive female. There-
fore, the males could gain reproductive benefit by mimicking female sound signals, since they rely
primarily on females' acoustic responses to find females. Our study provides the first experimental ev-
idence for sound production by a stridulatory mechanism in cicadas, and a novel case of intraspecific
sexual mimicry based on acoustic similarity.
In insects various ways to produce sounds have evolved for communication both within and betweenspecies. Cicada males are particularly known for their loud and diverse songs which are produced bytymbal organs. Females of some cicada species can produce sounds by wing flicking in response to malecalls. The cicada species Subpsaltria yangi is unusual in that, besides the tymbal organs of males, it haswell-developed stridulatory organs that are found in both sexes. Here, we investigated sound productionand mating behaviour of this cicada species. We show that, in the context of pair formation, femalesproduced sound signals by stridulation in response to advertisement signals produced by males withtymbal organs. We also found that the sounds produced by male cicadas with stridulatory organs wereextremely similar in acoustic structure to those of females, which indicates that males mimic the signalsproduced by females during pair formation. Acoustic playback experiments suggested that, by producingfemale-like sound signals, a male could deceive a receptive female into treating him as a rival female,which makes the male more effective in eliciting acoustic responses from the receptive female. There-fore, the males could gain reproductive benefit by mimicking female sound signals, since they relyprimarily on females' acoustic responses to find females. Our study provides the first experimental ev-idence for sound production by a stridulatory mechanism in cicadas, and a novel case of intraspecificsexual mimicry based on acoustic similarity.
การแปล กรุณารอสักครู่..