Communucation among insects

Nisar Ahmad

1. COMMUNICATION AMONG INSECTS SUBJECT: ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR NAME: NISAR AHMAD M.SC 4 TH DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY

2. COMMUNICATION AMONG INSECTS What is Communication? It is the exchange of information between individuals . Most insect language is innate. And most of their language is inherited, so each individual born with a distinctive vocabulary that shared only with other members of its own species.

3. Why do insects communicate? 1- Recognition of kin or nest mates. 2- Locating or identifying a member of the opposite sex . 3- Facilitation of courtship and mating. 4- Giving directions for location of food. 5- Regulating spatial distribution of individuals, aggregation or dispersal; establishing and maintaining a territory. 6- Warning of danger; setting off an alarm. 7- Expressing threat or submission. 8- mimicry.

4. Insects may send a communication signals by : 1- Doing something (e.g. make a noise, release a chemical or flash a light). 2- By physical makeup (e.g. wing pattern, body colour) Like other animals, insects use their five senses to acquire information about their environment (taste, touch, vision, hearing , olfaction (smell)).

5. Visual communication The color patterns and other markings of the wings (butterflies and moths) facilitate species recognition (like football players ).

6. Fire flies pulses of light are used in courtship dialogue between a male (usually flying) and a female (usually perched in the vegetation).

7. Photinus pyralis Males of Photinus pyralis emit a signal J shape flash during a rising flight movement and the female responds with a single flash after a two second intervals.

8. Photinus comsumilis However The male Photinus comsumilis during a rising flight movement emit a series of 3.5 short flashes and a female respond after a double flash.

9. A lfalfa butterflies In alfalfa butterflies , males have U.V. reflective scales and missing scales is a sign for male ageing.

10. Chemical communication: It is the most common way of insect communication. These chemicals are divided into 2 groups. 1. Pheromones. 2. Allelo -chemicals.

11. Pheromones Chemical signals that carry information from one individual to another member of the same species . Alarm pheromones are signals that are put out by insects if they are disturbed or threatened. Trail pheromones are used by ants, caterpillars and other insects . These signals are like maps that help insects to find food.

12. Allelochemicals Chemical signals that travel between individual of different species.

13. Functions of Pheromones 1- Queen bee emit pheromones that affects the development of workers bee. 2- Ant use pheromones to recruit nest mates to a food source.

14. 3- When laying their eggs, some flies moths and beetles use certain pheromones to repel insects of the same and competing species, thereby protecting their progeny.

15. 4- Aphids give alarm pheromones that urge neighbouring aphids to flee from nearby predators.

16. Tactile communication Insects communicate through touch with their antennae and their mouths. Touch communication via antenna is common to both bees and ants. There is almost no light in the bee hive, so bees often rely on touch communication.

17. Bees dance Bees communicate by dance language. Bees use dance as a form of communication for distance and direction of food sources or nest sites.

18. Types of dances 1- Round dance (running in a circle , is performed for close sites).

19. Transitional (or sickle) dance : For sites at an intermediate distance from the hive. This dance involves running in a semicircular (or moon) shape.

20. Waggle dance : The waggle dance is a language used by honey bee Apis mellifera . Which give the bees the ability to communicate the food sources locations.

21. Acoustic communication : Sounds are caused by vibrations that can pass through air, water, and solid structures. Because sound waves move rapidly through air, acoustic signals can be quickly started, stopped, or modified to send a time sensitive message.

22. When insects produce sound by rubbing parts of their body together it is called stridulation . Grasshoppers create sounds via stridulation to communicate with each other.

23. Vibrational communication : Is widespread in insect social and ecological interactions. Insects used water surface or plant surface to produce vibrational sounds.

24. References :- 1-The principles of Insect Physiology. 2-The insects structure and function. 3-Insectos: la mejor guía de bichos . Parragon Books Ltd. 4- Hometrainingtools.com: insect communications 5-www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/tutorial/Communication / 6- Firefly.org