Sonic Patterns III: Sounds and Vibrations from Soils - Soundscape Ecology: Principles, Patterns, Methods and Applications - page 212

beetles, as reviewed by Cocroft and Hamel ( 2010 ), but the different uses of
vibration mechanisms in related species remain quite obscure.
The jumping spider Hebronattus dossenus , which during courtship uses seismic
signals, seems to do more signaling in leaf litter than in sandy soil or rocks (Elias
et al. 2004 ).
Stridulatory signals are used by ants although chemical signals seem more
common. It is questioned if stridulatory signals are airborne sounds or are
vibratorial signals across the substrate. It is reasonable to admit that ants are
unresponsive to airborne sound at a distance of a meter or more. Trichoid sensilla
probably use their antennae as receptors of airborne sound.
Selenopsis richteri is a species of fire ant that has a sting which can kill insects,
birds, and small mammals. For instance, in humans the bite of this species produces
a painful allergic reaction that in some cases may be lethal. When Hichling and
Brown ( 2000 ) posed a microphone in a mound of this species, the microphone was
immediately attacked, accompanied by different types of acoustic signals. The
rapidity of the response suggests an acoustic and a nonchemical communication
between individuals (Fig. 8.4 ).
Despite the assumption by these authors about the hearing capacity of this group,
other authors (Roces and Tautz 2001 ) consider ant stridulation as a substrate-borne
component, admitting that ants are definitively deaf.
The African fungus-growing termites of the genus Macrotermes utilize a com-
plex system of vibrational long-distance alarm communication (R¨hrig et al. 1999 ).
When the nest is disturbed the males of Macrotermes bellicousus and
M. subhyalinus produce vibrational signals by drumming their heads against the
substratum. The frequency with which they emit such vibration is species specific:
M. bellicousus uses a pulse frequency of 26 Hz and M. subhyalinus a pulse
frequency of 13 Hz.
The drumming executed by males is transmitted by soldiers and intercepted by
the workers, which enter into an alarm status and escape toward the nest. This
system rapidly propagates where there are soldiers and represents a long-distance
communication produced by individual preamplification.
According to the intensity of the drumming, the reaction of the workers can
produce a mass retreat toward the nest.
Substrate-born vibration is used extensively by animals to locate mates, prey,
and predators. Antlion larvae build funnel-shaped traps to capture ants. Recently
Fertin and Casas ( 2007 ) have experimentally demonstrated that antlion larvae use
the vibrations produced by ants to locate their prey.
Japanese rhinoceros beetle ( Trypoxylus dichotoma ) larvae have been shown
experimentally to avoid pupal cells harboring live pupae, possible because pupae
produce a specific vibration of 3-7 pulses at 1.3 s of interval by beating the
pronotum against the inner wall of the pupal cell (Kojima et al. 2012 ). Such
vibration reduces the risk that a larva of the same species living in the same patch
of humus can damage the pupal cell. This behavior seems strongly correlated with
an ancestral antipredatory mechanism (Fig. 8.5 ).