Ecological Constraints for the Evolution of Hearing and Sound Communication in Insects

Abstract

Many insects, in particular those belonging to the orthoptera, use acoustic signals both for the attraction of mates and for aggressive interactions with competitors (for review see Cade 1985). There are a number of reasons for the great diversity of acoustic signals used in social behavior, and these may include a response to (1) changes in the physical properties of the environment, (2) the presence of other acoustically communicating species competing for the same transmission channel, (3) the presence of predators, or (4) sexual selection. No more than 10 years ago, the function of (and the evolution of) hearing in insects was almost reduced to a mechanism for avoiding mismating. Evidence that predator avoidance could be part of the selection pressure for the evolution of hearing was largely ignored (with the exception of the obvious interaction between bat echolocation and moth hearing; Roeder 1965; but see Hoy, Chapter 8.