Signalers and Receivers Mechanisms and Evolution of Arthropod Communication

by Greenfield, Michael D.

• ISBN13: 9780195134520
• ISBN10: 0195134524
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-02-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In most terrestrial and aquatic habitats, the vast majority of animals transmitting and receiving communicative signals are arthropods. This book presents the story of how this important group of animals use pheromones, sound, vibration, and light for sexual and social communication. Becauseof their small to minute body size most arthropods have problems sending and receiving acoustic and optical information, each of which have their own severe constraints. Because of these restraints they have developed chemical signaling which is not similarly limited by scale. Presenting the latesttheoretical and experimental findings from studies of signaling, it suggests that close parallels between arthropods and vertebrates reflect a very limited number of solutions to problems in behavior that are available within the confines of physical laws.

Author Biography

Michael D. Greenfield is a Professor of Biological Sciences in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Table of Contents

List of Symbols	xi
Communication in a Lilliputian World	3	(6)
Communication, Signal, and Cues	6	(2)
Scope and Coverage	8	(1)
Signal Theory and the Language of Communication	9	(13)
Channels, Signals, and Signal Characters	9	(4)
Peripheral and Central Filters	13	(2)
Sensory Adaptation and the Perception of Relative Intensity	15	(2)
Noise and the Signal: Noise Ratio	17	(2)
Information	19	(1)
Reliability, Repeatability, and Redundancy	20	(2)
Chemical Signaling and the Olfactory Channel	22	(90)
Sexual Advertisement: Organic Lures and Beacons	23	(50)
Courtship: Volatile Aromas as Reliable Indicators	73	(9)
Nascent Sociality: Conspecific Cuing, Mass Attacks, and Swarms	82	(6)
Social Behavior: Royalty and Altruists	88	(4)
Social Behavior: Discriminating Insiders from Outsiders	92	(6)
Social Behavior: A Call to Arms	98	(4)
Social Behavior: Recruitment Trails	102	(8)
Synopsis	110	(2)
Sound and Vibration and the Mechanical Channel	112	(118)
What Is the Mechanical Channel?	114	(13)
Signal Transmission: Friction, Tymbals, Percussion, Vibration, and Tremulation	127	(22)
Signal Reception: Membranes and Hairs	149	(25)
Functions and Adaptations: Sexual Advertisement, Aggression, and Social Interaction	174	(45)
Origins and Limitations	219	(11)
Bioluminescence and Reflected Light and the Visual Channel	230	(45)
The Nature of Light	231	(7)
Signaling Along the Visual Channel	238	(18)
Mechanisms of Visual Reception	256	(16)
Perceptual Influences on Optical Signal Design	272	(3)
Sexual Selection and the Evolution of Signals	275	(15)
Exploitation of Receiver Bias	276	(6)
Coevolutionary Mechanisms	282	(8)
Signal Evolution: Modification and Diversification	290	(7)
Genetic Coupling?	290	(3)
Aberrant Signals and Preferences: Conducive Factors and Toleration	293	(1)
Are Complex and Multi-modal Signals Favored?	294	(3)
Notes	297	(18)
References	315	(72)
Glossary	387	(6)
Taxonomic Index	393	(6)
Subject Index	399