QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by FLETCHER, N. H. Articles by HILL, K. G. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by FLETCHER, N. H. Articles by HILL, K. G.

Journal of Experimental Biology 72,43-55 (1978)
Published by Company of Biologists 1978

Acoustics of Sound Production and of Hearing in the Bladder Cicada Cystosoma Saundersii (Westwood)

N. H. FLETCHER ¹ and K. G. HILL ²

¹ Department of Physics, University of New England, Armidale, N.S.W. 2351, Australia
² Department of Neurobiology, Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T. 2600, Australia

The male cicada of the species Cystosoma saundersii has a grossly enlarged, hollow abdomen and emits a loud calling song with a fundamental frequency of about 800 Hz. At the song frequency, its hearing is nondirectional. The female of C. saundersii lacks sound producing organs, has no enlargement of the abdomen, but possesses an abdominal air sac and has well developed directional hearing at the frequency of the species' song.

Physical mechanisms are proposed that explain these observations in semi-quantitative detail using the standard method of electrical network analogues. The abdomen in the male, with its enclosed air, is found to act as a system resonant at the song frequency, thus contributing a large gain in radiated sound intensity. Coupling between this resonator and the auditory tympana accounts for the observed hearing sensitivity in the male, but destroys directionality. In the female, the abdominal cavity acts in association with the two auditory tympana as part of a phase shift network which results in appreciable directionality of hearing at the unusually low frequency of the male song.