Stinkbugs: Multisensory Communication with Chemical and Vibratory Signals Transmitted Through Different Media

Abstract

Extensive field research of stinkbug (Pentatomidae: Heteroptera) biology, ecology, feeding habits and communication revealed that reproductive behaviour is a complex process that needs integrative studies in the field and laboratory at different levels. The general model of group mating behaviour includes long-range communication in the field with airborne chemical signals that gather mates on the common substrate, and then the exchange of information during calling and courtship phases by plant-borne and airborne vibratory, chemical, contact mechanical and visual signals. This basic concept of multimodal communication has been confirmed with few exceptions in more than 35 stinkbug species. Privacy in stinkbug communication with chemical and vibratory signals is achieved by the use of unimodal or multicomponent signals. Male pheromone, for example, triggers female calling and the latter signals, for some species, increase the male sex pheromone production. In the present chapter, the authors focus special attention on the stinkbug sensory system that enables detecting and processing of chemical and vibratory signals transmitted through the air and different substrates. The advances of stinkbug chemical communication and its chemoreception are presented and discussed with new examples from the literature. Recent studies of airborne and substrate-borne vibratory signals produced by body and wing tremulation increased the number of mechanoreceptors involved in communication. Integration of information takes place in common neuropiles. In summary, an update on the advances in multimodal stinkbug communication is presented and future studies are proposed, mainly based on mutual interaction of multimodal signals and their recognition in both field and laboratory.