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First published online July 14, 2008
Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 2431-2441 (2008)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2008
doi: 10.1242/jeb.017285
The neuroethology of song cessation in response to gleaning bat calls in two species of katydids, Neoconocephalus ensiger and Amblycorypha oblongifolia
Biology Department, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
* Author for correspondence (e-mail: h.terhofstede{at}utoronto.ca)
Accepted 12 May 2008
| Summary |
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Key words: antipredator behaviour, echolocation, Tettigoniidae, calling song
| INTRODUCTION |
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Male katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) produce calling songs to attract
females, and these often intense and repetitive sounds can also attract the
attention of predators. Thus, there is an apparent conflict between sexual and
natural selection for these animals (Zuk
and Kolluru, 1998
). Although the majority of insectivorous bats
hunt by catching prey on the wing, many species are known to glean (capture
prey from surfaces) (Findley,
1993
; Ratcliffe et al.,
2006
; Wilson,
1973
). Several gleaning species use nocturnal orthopteran calling
songs to locate these perched insects as prey
(Bailey and Haythornthwaite,
1998
; Belwood and Morris,
1987
; Fenton et al.,
1983
; Tuttle et al.,
1985
). Belwood and Morris
(Belwood and Morris, 1987
)
found that in a Neotropical katydid community, species that sing in habitats
inaccessible to gleaning bats produced higher duty cycle songs (i.e. greater
percentage of the time calling occupied by sound) compared to species singing
in open mature forest where gleaning bats hunt. They suggested that this
represented a trade-off in primary defences; either katydids sing in habitats
that are refuges from bats, or they reduce the cues they provide to bats for
locating them. In support of this argument, several experiments have
demonstrated that gleaning bats either cannot, or take longer to, locate
orthopterans that call from refuges (Bailey
and Haythornthwaite, 1998
) or have low duty cycle songs
(Belwood and Morris, 1987
;
Hosken et al., 1994
).
It is possible, however, that not all katydids rely entirely on primary
defence against gleaning bat predation. Katydids have ears that are sensitive
to ultrasound, and some species, such as Neoconocephalus ensiger
(Libersat and Hoy, 1991
) and
Tettigonia viridissima (Schulze
and Schul, 2001
), have an in-flight diving response to ultrasound.
The flight response is thought to be mediated by an interneuron located in the
prothoracic ganglion called the T-cell (TN1)
(Libersat and Hoy, 1991
),
which has one axon running anteriorly within the cervical connective and
another running posteriorly within the prothoracic–metathoracic
connective. This cell is broadly tuned, but more sensitive to ultrasound than
audible sound in most species studied to date. This potentially gives katydids
the ability to detect the ultrasonic echolocation calls of gleaning bats and
cease singing as a secondary defence against these predators. Spangler
(Spangler, 1984
) reported that
the katydid Insara covilleae paused singing when bats flew near it
and also paused in response to continuous ultrasound. Faure and Hoy
(Faure and Hoy, 2000a
)
discovered that the katydid N. ensiger paused and ceased singing in
response to synthesized pulses of ultrasound in the lab, but rarely
demonstrated this behaviour in response to audible sound. Song cessation,
however, is a costly behaviour; females of the katydid Requena
verticalis abandon approaches to low intensity songs if the male stops
singing (Bailey et al.,
2003
).
The purpose of our study was to investigate the relationship between
predator detection threshold and the use of primary versus secondary defences
in katydids. We chose two sympatric species of katydids inhabiting Eastern
North America for comparison: N. ensiger, a species with a high duty
cycle song, and Amblycorypha oblongifolia, a species with a low duty
cycle song. Our first objective was to test the hypothesis proposed by Faure
and Hoy (Faure and Hoy,
2000a
), that song cessation in katydids could be elicited by the
echolocation calls of a sympatric gleaning bat, Myotis
septentrionalis, as a secondary defence. Our second objective was to
determine if differences in behavioural responses between these two katydid
species are related to differences in T-cell responses. We hypothesized that
low duty cycle calling is the best defence for species not sensitive enough to
mount a secondary defence in response to predator cues, and from this we
predicted that N. ensiger would have a more pronounced singing
acoustic startle response, and lower T-cell thresholds, than A.
oblongifolia. Unlike N. ensiger, the presence of the T-cell has
not been previously demonstrated in A. oblongifolia.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Acoustic stimuli used in behavioural and neurological experiments
We recorded three stimuli for playback experiments with katydids: two types
of echolocation call sequences of M. septentrionalis (gleaning and
searching calls, both predator cues) and the calling song of a cricket
(non-predatory sound). Recordings of M. septentrionalis echolocation
call sequences were made in August 2004. Our initial interest in M.
septentrionalis stemmed from observations of several bats gleaning
singing N. ensiger in the flight room. We subsequently discovered
that naïve M. septentrionalis released into the flight room
would land on a speaker broadcasting this insect's calling song. To obtain a
suitable gleaning attack sequence, we released four M.
septentrionalis individually into the flight room and broadcast the
calling song of N. ensiger at 93 dB peak equivalent sound pressure
level (peSPL) (Stapells et al.,
1982
), with reference to a 13 kHz continuous tone, from a laptop
via a data acquisition card (DAQCard 6062E; National Instruments,
Austin, TX, USA), ultrasonic amplifier (70101; Avisoft Bioacoustics, Berlin,
Germany) and speaker (ScanSpeak 60102; Avisoft Bioacoustics). The speaker was
positioned on a shelf 1.1 m above ground facing toward the centre of the
flight room. An array of 60 infrared-sensitive diodes spaced 3 cm apart on a
pole was placed opposite and two metres away from two near infrared light
sources (51 W,
=890 nm) on tripods. The array was positioned such that
the axis of light to receivers was perpendicular to the axis of sound
originating at the speaker, and the point between the receivers and sources
was 2 m away from the speaker. The diodes registered the amount of light
received as voltage, and thus when a bat flew between the light sources and
the diodes it caused a decrease in the voltage produced by the diode(s) in the
shadow of the bat. This signal was transformed by a custom built converter
into a 1 s 12VDC pulse, which was recorded onto one channel of a RACAL Store
4D tape recorder at 76 cm s–1. A second channel recorded the
echolocation calls of the bat from a 6.35 mm microphone (2200C; Larson Davis,
New York, USA) positioned directly above the speaker. This provided a
recording of the attacking bat's echolocation calls with a marker at the time
it crossed the 2 m light line in front of the speaker. A
near-infrared-sensitive CCD camera (VCB-3524; Sanyo, San Diego, CA, USA)
placed at the back of the room facing the speaker and recording onto a VHS
tape provided information about the horizontal and vertical position of the
bat relative to the speaker when it broke the light beam. From these three
relative measurements, we could calculate the exact distance of the bat to the
speaker when it triggered the light array. We recorded one attack sequence per
bat.
To estimate intensity of echolocation calls produced during a gleaning attack, we used the same equipment to record a 60 kHz continuous tone (a typical peak frequency for the recorded echolocation calls) generated by a custom-built MATLAB (Version R2006b; The MathWorks, Natick, MA, USA) application on a laptop and broadcast from an Avisoft speaker. The volume was increased until the voltage recorded by the RACAL tape recorder was the same as that recorded for the bat call at the time of the IR marker. This was then broadcast to a 6.35 mm condenser microphone (Type 4135; Brüel and Kjær, Nærum, Denmark) and measuring amplifier (Type 2610: Brüel and Kjær) to obtain the peak equivalent sound intensity for that call. Two of the four bats triggered the light array during their approach to the speaker. We calculated a source level call intensity (i.e. at 10 cm) of 104 dB peSPL for one bat and 105 dB peSPL for the other bat (equivalent to 78 and 79 dB peSPL at the microphone, i.e. intensity at the target). These sequences were digitized and one representative sequence was selected for playback to singing katydids.
We recorded search calls of M. septentrionalis from four
light-tagged bats released in a forest clearing. Recordings were made using a
6.35mm microphone (2200C: Larson Davis), anti-aliasing filter (150 kHz;
Pettersson Elektronik AB, Uppsala, Sweden), data acquisition card (DAQCard
6062E; National Instruments), and a laptop running BatSound Pro (version 3.31,
Pettersson Elektronik AB) at a sampling rate of 500 kHz. Echolocation calls
produced at intervals greater than 50ms were considered search phase calls
(Surlykke and Moss, 2000
) and
measurements were taken of spectral and temporal characters (duration, peak
frequency and bandwidth). One representative call (peak frequency: 43 kHz,
duration: 2.1ms) was selected and repeated within a single file using BatSound
Pro. This call was repeated 16 times with a period (time from the start of one
call to the start of the next call) of 97ms (the average search call period of
the recorded bats). We made the total duration of this sequence (1.46s)
approximately equal in length to the chosen gleaning attack sequence (1.40s)
to keep the stimuli similar.
One second of silence was added to the start of each sequence to ensure that any observed katydid responses could be attributed to the echolocation calls, not any initial speaker noise. Both sequences were bandpass filtered in BatSound Pro (Butterworth, filter order 8) between 25 and 200 kHz to remove background katydid calls and any high frequency incidental noise. Periods of time between echolocation calls were silenced. We created a series of eight files that each decreased by 5 dB from the original using the "change volume" feature in SASLab Pro (Avisoft Bioacoustics). For both behavioural and neurophysiological playback experiments (see below), the voltage required to produce 90 dB peSPL at 30 cm (the distance between speaker and katydid) for the search calls or the most intense gleaning call was recorded. We calibrated the speaker prior to each playback experiment by adjusting the voltage output from the amplifier to this value for the highest amplitude file for each sequence. This meant that the nine files per sequence were broadcast from 50 to 90 dB peSPL at the katydid at 5 dB increments.
In addition to bat echolocation calls, a single file of cricket calling song (Teleogryllus oceanicus Le Guillou), an Australian species to which the katydids in our study would never have been exposed, was played to each singing katydid at an intensity of 85 dB peSPL. This song was recorded from one lab colony male within a sound attenuating chamber with the same equipment used for recording bat search calls. We created a file consisting of one long chirp (five pulses) followed by nine short chirps (two pulses each, 31 ms mean duration of pulses, 5.0 kHz peak frequency) for a total duration of 1.40 s (similar duration to the echolocation call sequences). We included this stimulus to test if the acoustic startle response of katydids is specific to bat calls or can also be elicited by a novel, but non-threatening, sound.
Katydid behavioural responses to acoustic stimuli
We placed individual katydids within cylindrical metal mesh cages
(72mmx150mm diameterxheight) for playback experiments. Four cages
were placed on a table, each with the centre of the cage 30 cm from the edge
and separated by 5 cm, in a dark, quiet room. The surface of the table and the
wall behind was lined with sound attenuating foam. We used a laptop running
Avisoft Recorder to playback echolocation and cricket calling song sequences
to the katydids and record the calling song and responses of the katydids.
Echolocation playback files were broadcast to the katydids at a sampling rate
of 214 kHz via the high-speed DAQ card, ultrasonic amplifier and an
ultrasonic speaker (Technics leaf tweeter, EAS 10TH400B), which was positioned
at the edge of the table (hence 30 cm from centre of the cage) using a tripod.
A condenser microphone (CM16: Avisoft Bioacoustics) positioned within 1 m of
the katydids and connected to one channel of a USB ultrasound acquisition
board (Avisoft Ultrasound Gate 416) recorded the calling song of the katydids
at a sampling rate of 214 kHz. A direct line from the output of the high speed
DAQ card was recorded onto a second channel of the Avisoft USG thus providing
a stimulus trace for each recording.
When one katydid began singing, we placed the speaker directly in front of and 30 cm away from that individual and removed the other cages. First, we recorded 30 s of singing as an example of calling song for that individual. We then started playing back one of the echolocation sequences (either search or gleaning calls, alternating which sequence was tested first for each katydid) starting with the least intense file (50 dB peSPL). If the katydid did not cease singing, we waited 30 s and then proceeded to the next more intense file. This protocol was followed until the katydid stopped singing. The intensity of this file was recorded as the threshold for song cessation for this individual. For A. oblongifolia, we timed the echolocation sequences to occur between katydid song emissions (see below) but, because of the high repetition rate, this was not possible for N. ensiger. We used a functional definition for song cessation that considers its effectiveness as a defence against gleaning bats. Song cessation was defined as a period greater than 9.5 s, the mean duration of time five M. septentrionalis investigated a speaker broadcasting katydid calls after it went silent, plus three standard deviations (H.M.t.H., personal observation). This represents the amount of time in which for 99.7% of the cases the bat would have left the vicinity. We feel this is an appropriate measure for an antipredator response considering the gravity of the situation if the katydid resumes singing with a predator nearby. After the echolocation sequences, the single 85 dB peSPL cricket calling song file was broadcast to the singing katydid.
The recordings for each katydid were analyzed in SASLab Pro. We describe
calling song in both species using the term `emission' to refer to the
repeated element of song. In N. ensiger, this refers to the syllable
produced by a single closing of the wings, whereas in A. oblongifolia
this refers to the single call produced at regular intervals by more complex
wing movements. To compare calling song between species, we measured emission
duration (ms), emission period (ms; the time from the beginning of one
syllable/call to the beginning of the next) from the oscillogram and peak
frequency (kHz; frequency with the most energy) and bandwidth (kHz; the
difference between low and high frequencies 15 dB less intense than the peak
frequency) from the power spectrum (1024-point fast Fourier transform, Hamming
window) for ten pre-stimulus emissions per individual. Duty cycle was
calculated as emission duration divided by emission period multiplied by 100%.
To determine if song pausing occurred, we measured the periods of calling song
for 15 s prior to and 15 s after echolocation call playback for A.
oblongifolia and for 1.4 s prior to, during, and 1.4 s after playback for
N. ensiger. This difference was due to the difference in repetition
rate between the two species. Song pausing was defined as a period that is
greater than the mean period of emissions from that individual produced before
the start of each playback sequence plus four standard deviations
(Faure and Hoy, 2000a
).
Katydid neurological responses to acoustic stimuli:
After behavioural testing, each katydid was tested for their neural
responses to synthetic ultrasonic pulses and the same echolocation sequences
that they were exposed to during singing. Katydids were secured to modelling
clay, ventral side up using metal struts and the forelegs held in a natural
position by securing the tarsi to the head of a pin using modelling clay or
wax. The cuticle overlying the neck connectives was removed and that between
the prothoracic and mesothoracic sternites was cut. Preparations were placed
30 cm from an ultrasonic speaker (Technics leaf tweeter, EAS 10TH400B) at
90° to the longitudinal axis of the katydid within a grounded Faraday cage
lined with sound attenuating foam. The cervical connective ipsilateral to the
presentation speaker, a connective that carries one of the axons of the T-cell
(Faure and Hoy, 2000b
;
Nebeling, 2000
;
Rheinlaender and Römer,
1986
), was hooked by a stainless steel electrode and a reference
electrode was inserted into the abdomen. The connectives anterior to the
recording electrode and posterior to the prothoracic ganglion were cut to
reduce extraneous nervous activity. The signal from the electrodes was
amplified (P15 AC amplifier: Grass Technologies, West Warwick, RI, USA),
digitized using a computer data acquisition board (Pico Technology, St Neots,
Cambridgeshire, UK), and displayed online with an oscilloscope-emulating
program (Picoscope 5.10.7). The stimuli and nerve signals were also recorded
using the Avisoft USG and recorder software on the same computer.
Neural responses to two types of acoustic stimuli were tested. First, we
generated threshold response curves (audiograms) by broadcasting 10 ms pure
tone pulses at a repetition rate of 2 s–1 and a sampling rate
of 500 kHz using a custom-built MATLAB application, data acquisition board
(BNC 2110, National Instruments), and ultrasonic amplifier. Frequencies from 5
to 100 kHz in 5 kHz increments were broadcast in random order, and the sound
intensity was increased until threshold was reached, defined as a single
T-cell spike in at least four of five consecutive pulses
(Faure and Hoy, 2000b
).
Second, we broadcast the 19 files used in the behavioural experiments
(gleaning and search call sequences from 50 to 90 dB peSPL at the preparation
at 5 dB intervals and cricket calling song at 85 dB peSPL) and simultaneously
recorded the nerve response and stimuli on two separate channels of the
Avisoft USG using Avisoft recorder at a sampling rate of 214 kHz. Ten seconds
of silence separated each playback presentation to prevent adaptation of the
T-cell between stimulus presentations. We measured three variables in these
recordings: total number of spikes during the stimulus sequence, latency to
the first spike for the first call in each search phase sequence (ms) and the
instantaneous spike rate (inverse of the time between spikes;
s–1) (Nabatiyan et al.,
2003
). Only the mean of the five greatest instantaneous spike
rates was used in statistical analyses to get a more accurate estimate of
spike rate in response to the stimuli. We also measured these variables for
1.4 s of the recording before playbacks to get values of background T-cell
spike number and rate.
We tested in one animal that the large spike responding to sound in A.
oblongifolia was a T-cell using a double electrode recording, one
recording electrode hooked onto the ascending connective and another hooked
onto the descending connective of the prothoracic ganglion [as previously
described for N. ensiger (Faure
and Hoy, 2000b
); various species
(Suga, 1966
)]. Given the
morphology of the T-cell (one branch extending anteriorly and another
extending posteriorly from the prothoracic ganglion), we expected to see high
amplitude action potentials following ultrasonic stimuli on both electrode
traces in A. oblongifolia. We broadcast the same synthetic pulses as
used for the audiograms and gradually raised the intensity for each frequency
to record responses.
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| RESULTS |
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=0.0125). Amblycorypha oblongifolia produced longer emissions
but at proportionately longer intervals resulting in a lower duty cycle
calling song than N. ensiger.
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Behavioural responses
Behavioural trials were run on 10 A. oblongifolia and 15 N.
ensiger. Individuals were categorized as either demonstrating a response
(song pausing and/or song cessation) or no response to the acoustic stimuli
(Table 2). Ten statistical
tests were run on the categorical data presented in
Table 2 using a critical alpha
value of 0.005 after Bonferroni correction. For A. oblongifolia,
there were no differences among the three playback stimuli in the number of
individuals that responded (Cochran's Q test: Q=8.3, d.f.=2,
P=0.016) or ceased singing (Q=3.5, d.f.=2,
P=0.174). For N. ensiger, there were no differences among
the three stimuli in the number of individuals that responded (Q=2,
d.f.=2, P=0.368), but more individuals ceased singing in response to
the two bat stimuli than in response to the cricket stimulus (Q=14,
d.f.=2, P<0.001). Amblycorypha oblongifolia and N.
ensiger did not differ in the number of individuals responding to the bat
stimuli (log-likelihood ratio: gleaning sequence, G=1.1, d.f.=1,
P=0.294; search call sequence, G=1.1, d.f.=1, P=0.294), but
significantly more N. ensiger ceased singing than A.
oblongifolia (gleaning sequence, G=12.3, d.f.=1, P<0.001;
Search call sequence, G=9.4, d.f.=1, P=0.002). There were
significantly more responses by N. ensiger than A.
oblongifolia to cricket calls (G=8.6, d.f.=1, P=0.003), but the
two katydid species did not differ in the number demonstrating song cessation
to this stimulus (G=3.4, d.f.=1, P=0.064).
|
Threshold sound intensities to pause and cease singing were generally lower for N. ensiger than A. oblongifolia, although this was more apparent for song cessation than song pausing (Fig. 2). The mode for song cessation (i.e. the sound intensity level at which the most individuals of the species ceased singing) was "no threshold" for A. oblongifolia, meaning most individuals never ceased singing up to and including at 90 dB peSPL, whereas the mode for N. ensiger ranged from 60–70 dB peSPL. Pause periods were longer for A. oblongifolia than N. ensiger (Table 3), reflecting the longer period of this species (Table 1).
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Neural responses
Double electrode recordings confirmed the presence of a putative T-cell in
one A. oblongifolia. The largest spike in response to sound could be
recorded from both the ascending and descending connectives from the
prothoracic ganglion (Fig. 3A).
When this characteristic spike occurred, it was present on both traces.
Although there were cases of spontaneous firing, it generally only occurred
after the presentation of a pulse of sound, and responded more reliably to
ultrasound than audible sound. That other nerve cell spikes could be detected
on one connective and not the other rules out the possibility that electrical
cross-talk was producing an artefactual double trace. Although two T-cells
have been reported in katydids, TN1 and TN2
(Schul, 1997
), we believe the
cell we recorded in both species is TN1 for several reasons: (1) Schul
(Schul, 1997
) reported that
TN2 could not be recorded using extracellular methods because of the small
axonal diameter, (2) the large spikes we observed (often five times greater in
amplitude than any other neural activity on the cervical connective) are
typical for TN1 because of its giant axonal diameter
(Faure and Hoy, 2000b
;
Rheinlaender and Römer,
1986
; Schul,
1997
), and (3) the shape of the threshold response curves are
similar to those reported for TN1 in other species (see Discussion).
|
We conducted 12 statistical tests on T-cell responses to entire stimulus sequences, reducing the critical alpha value to 0.004 after Bonferroni correction. We used a two-factor repeated measures ANOVA design to test for significant differences in T-cell responses between the two echolocation sequences (gleaning and search calls) and between intensities of each sequence (10 intensity levels: background, and 50–90 dB peSPL). Separate tests were run for each species and each variable (number of spikes per sequence and mean of the five greatest instantaneous spike rates). In all cases, the assumption of sphericity was met for factor 1, echolocation sequence (Mauchly's W=1), but was violated for factor 2, intensity (Mauchly's W<0.001, P<0.001) and the interaction factor, echolocation sequence x intensity (Mauchly's W<0.001, P<0.01). Therefore, the Greenhouse–Geisser corrected degrees of freedom were used for intensity and the interaction component.
The interaction term for the number of spikes per sequence was not significant for both species (N. ensiger: F3.6,32.7=4.976, P=0.004; A. oblongifolia: F2.6,23.6=5.828, P=0.005; Fig. 4), allowing for the interpretation of main effects. There were no significant differences in the number of spikes between echolocation sequences for either species (N. ensiger: F1,9=0.892, P=0.370; A. oblongifolia: F1,9=5.392, P=0.045), but there were significant differences between intensity levels (N. ensiger: F2,18=43.247, P<0.001; A. oblongifolia: F1.8,16.5=18.688, P<0.001). Post hoc pairwise LSD comparisons revealed which intensity levels differed from others, represented as different letters on Fig. 4. The number of spikes appears to increase steadily for N. ensiger, but increases very abruptly at 55 and 60 dB peSPL and then plateaus or even decreases with intensity for A. oblongifolia (Fig. 4). The interaction term was not significant for the mean of the five greatest instantaneous spike rates for both species (N. ensiger: F3.2,29.2=0.322, P=0.824; A. oblongifolia: F3.1,28.2=1.172, P=0.339; Fig. 4), allowing for the interpretation of main effects. There were no significant differences in the mean of the five greatest instantaneous spike rates between echolocation sequences for either species (N. ensiger: F1,9=0.182, P=0.680; A. oblongifolia: F1,9=0.760, P=0.406), but there were significant differences between intensity levels (N. ensiger: F2.5,22.3=24.695, P<0.001; A. oblongifolia: F2.5,22.6=21.016, P<0.001). As with the number of spikes per sequence, instantaneous rate increases continuously and gradually for N. ensiger, but abruptly increases and plateaus at 55 dB peSPL for A. oblongifolia (Fig. 4). For both species, the mean of the five greatest instantaneous rates was greater for 50 dB peSPL (the lowest intensity playback) than background rate.
|
To test for differences in T-cell responses between species, we used t-tests on the greatest differences observed within each level of factor 1 (echolocation sequences). The greatest difference in number of spikes between the two katydid species for the gleaning sequence occurred at 60 dB peSPL, and this was significantly different (t18=2.998, P=0.008). The greatest difference in number of spikes between the two katydid species for the search sequence occurred at 55 dB peSPL, and this was not significantly different (t18=2.281, P=0.035). The greatest differences in instantaneous rate between the two katydid species for both echolocation sequences were not significant (gleaning sequence 60 dB peSPL: t18=1.321, P=0.203; search sequence 55 dB peSPL: t18=1.192, P=0.249).
To test for T-cell response differences between echolocation calls and cricket calls for each species, we ran four repeated measures ANOVAs on data for the three 85 dB peSPL treatments (gleaning calls, search calls, and cricket calls). There were no significant differences in the number of spikes per treatment for A. oblongifolia (F2,26=1.2, P=0.323) or N. ensiger (F2,26=0.9, P=0.406). Likewise, for the mean of the five greatest instantaneous rates, there were no significant differences for A. oblongifolia (F2,26=0.4, P=0.682) or N. ensiger (F2,26=0.2, P=0.862). We plotted the maximum spike rate over 100 ms bins for the first 1 s of the playback and found that although the initial spike rates were similar between T. oceanicus and search calls, the rate then adapted to a lower value for the T. oceanicus calls (Fig. 5).
|
| DISCUSSION |
|---|
|
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|---|
These results are reflected in the sound intensity thresholds for responses
and cessation: N. ensiger had a lower modal response threshold for
gleaning calls and a lower modal cessation threshold for both echolocation
sequences. Neoconocephalus ensiger cease singing in response to
echolocation calls of M. septentrionalis from 60 to 85 dB peSPL at
the katydid. These values correspond with the range of source level call
intensity estimates for various gleaning bats: M. evotis
[77.3±2.9 dB peSPL (Faure and
Barclay, 1994
)], M. septentrionalis [78±1.9 dB
peSPL (Faure et al., 1993
);
102±6 dB peSPL for search calls, and approximately 65 dB peSPL at the
microphone for gleaning calls (Miller and
Treat, 1993
); upper limit of approximately 105 dB peSPL, this
study], P. auritus [88.6 and 97.1 dB peSPL
(Waters and Jones, 1995
)]. In
a direct measure of hearing distance, Schul et al.
(Schul et al., 2000
)
demonstrated that the katydid Phaneroptera falcata can hear search
calls of the gleaning bat Myotis myotis at a range of 13–30 m.
Hearing can be impaired during self-generated sound; cricket auditory
interneurons are inhibited during song emissions by a corollary discharge,
which helps maintain sensitivity between emissions
(Poulet and Hedwig, 2002
;
Poulet and Hedwig, 2003
).
Faure and Hoy (Faure and Hoy,
2000a
) provide some behavioural evidence that a similar mechanism
may be at work in N. ensiger; they found that these katydids only
ceased singing when a pulse of ultrasound fell between call emissions.
Interestingly, many individuals of both katydid species responded to our control stimulus, the T. oceanicus calls, a sound to which the katydids in our study would never have been exposed. There were no significant differences in T-cell spike numbers or rate over entire sequences between echolocation and T. oceanicus calls, despite the fact that the cricket calls are at 5 kHz, a frequency for which the T-cell has a high threshold in audiograms (Fig. 3B). This could be due to the greater duty cycle of the cricket calls than the bat calls (T. oceanicus calls 48%, gleaning bat calls 2.3%, searching bat calls 2.4%) and the presence of harmonics in the cricket calls at 10 and 15 kHz, frequencies to which the T-cell is most sensitive (Fig. 3B). Although these harmonics were 40–45 dB less intense than the peak 5 kHz frequency, the katydids were 45–71 dB more sensitive to these frequencies (Fig. 3B). The maximum rate of T-cell firing decreased more over time for the T. oceanicus calls than the bat search calls, however, and it is possible that in the case of cricket calls, T-cell firing quickly dips below the required firing rate for a behavioural response. Significantly fewer N. ensiger ceased singing in response to cricket calls than bat calls, but there was no difference in the number of A. oblongifolia responding to bat calls or cricket calls. We suggest that this indicates N. ensiger may possess the ability to differentiate between predator and non-predator sounds, whereas A. oblongifolia exhibits a more generalized response to sounds.
The neural audiograms for N. ensiger and A. oblongifolia
were similar in shape to each other and to previously recorded T-cell
audiograms for other species (Faure and
Hoy, 2000b
; Forrest et al.,
2006
; Hill and Oldfield,
1981
; McKay, 1969
;
Suga, 1966
;
Suga and Katsuki, 1961
), but
they were significantly different from each other at certain frequencies. The
T-cell of A. oblongifolia demonstrates low threshold sensitivity to
the frequencies of its own calling song (10 kHz), which is not found in N.
ensiger. Likewise, N. ensiger has significantly lower thresholds
for high frequencies that are typically emitted by gleaning bats (e.g.
45–55 kHz in this study). This result, however, did not correspond with
significant differences in the number or rate of T-cell spiking to the
specific echolocation call sequences presented to these two species. This
suggests that the difference in behavioural responses between these two
species is not linked to T-cell activity, especially spike rate, which is
important in eliciting the flight acoustic startle response in crickets
(Nolen and Hoy, 1984
). Two
alternative hypotheses for our results, to be tested in future research are,
(1) the T-cell is not involved in the singing acoustic startle response, or
(2) the function of the T-cell is not conserved within the Tettigoniidae and
could be context dependent in some species. We suggest that the latter
hypothesis is most likely and discuss our reasons for this belief below.
Suga and Katsuki (Suga and Katsuki,
1961
) first described the T-cell in a katydid, and subsequent
studies reported T-cells in other katydid species and described
characteristics that suggested its role in predator avoidance, such as
sensitivity to high frequencies, large axonal diameter (hence fast conduction
velocity), and a phasic response that encodes short pulses of sound better
than long pulses (Faure and Hoy,
2000b
; Faure and Hoy,
2000c
; Kalmring et al.,
1979
; McKay, 1969
;
Schul, 1997
). Although
katydids have other ascending interneurons sensitive to ultrasound, the T-cell
has a lower threshold, higher firing rate, and larger axonal diameter than
these other interneurons (Stumpner and
Molina, 2006
). Behavioural audiograms in N. ensiger for
the flight acoustic startle response
(Libersat and Hoy, 1991
) and
the singing acoustic startle response
(Faure and Hoy, 2000a
) are
similar in shape, tuning and threshold and could be controlled by the same
neural mechanism considering that similar muscles are involved in these two
responses (Faure and Hoy,
2000a
). These authors suggest that the T-cell may be involved in
the acoustic startle response of N. ensiger since the pattern of the
tuning curve of the T-cell closely matches these behavioural audiograms, but
with lower thresholds (by about 30 dB). Schul and Sheridan
(Schul and Sheridan, 2006
)
recently demonstrated that the T-cell in N. retusus can function in
auditory stream segregation. The T-cell rapidly adapts and stops spiking in
response to pulses of sound at high repetition rates (i.e. calling song), but
will fire if pulses at a slower rate and different frequency interrupt this
pattern (Schul and Sheridan,
2006
). This property makes this cell ideal for listening for
predators, especially bats, in noisy environments. Therefore, we believe that
the T-cell remains the most likely candidate for evoking the singing acoustic
startle response.
How can the T-cell be responsible for the singing acoustic startle response
when it demonstrates almost identical spike number and rates in two katydid
species that show different behavioural responses to bat calls?
Neurophysiological studies have revealed more ascending auditory interneurons
in katydids (e.g. Stumpner and Molina,
2006
) than crickets, which appear to have only two: AN1 responsive
primarily to low frequencies and AN2 responsive primarily to high frequencies
(Stumpner and von Helversen,
2001
). This is not surprising given that most crickets sing within
a comparatively restricted low-frequency range and can therefore discriminate
between conspecifics and predators on the basis of frequency alone
(Moiseff et al., 1978
).
Katydids, on the other hand, vary greatly in calling song frequencies and
often produce broadband calls that include ultrasound frequencies. Some
authors have suggested that in many species of katydids, T-cell function might
vary with behavioural context in a manner similar to that seen in crickets
(Schul and Schulze, 2001
;
Schulze and Schul, 2001
;
Stumpner and Molina, 2006
):
AN2 in crickets functions in ultrasound avoidance in flight
(Nolen and Hoy, 1984
), but in
mate localization during phonotaxis
(Schildberger and Hörner,
1988
). Female katydids of Tettigonia viridissima require
both audible and ultrasonic calling song components for phonotaxis, and TN1
faithfully encodes the double pulse structure of the calling song in this
species (Schul, 1997
). This
species also demonstrates an in-flight acoustic startle response to ultrasound
(Schulze and Schul, 2001
).
Schul and Schulze (Schul and Schulze,
2001
) manipulated the intercall interval and found that there was
a minimum interval required for walking phonotaxis, but not flying phonotaxis.
This is consistent with the hypothesis that the T-cell functions in coding the
syllable structure of the song during walking, but functions in bat avoidance
during flight (Schul and Schulze,
2001
).
It has also been suggested that the amount of ultrasound in the calling
song of katydids could provide information to females about the distance to
the male, since ultrasound attenuates more than audible sound
(Römer and Bailey, 1990
).
Our recordings of A. oblongifolia reveal greater bandwidth extending
up into ultrasonic frequencies, compared to the narrowband calls of N.
ensiger. Species in the genus Neoconocephalus have pure-tone
calls in the audible range with few ultrasonic components
(Schul and Patterson, 2003
).
The T-cell in Neoconocephalus spp. also adapts out to repetitive
signals that represent their calling song
(Faure and Hoy, 2000c
;
Schul and Sheridan, 2006
),
suggesting that this cell would be ineffective at mate localization for these
species. Therefore, one factor that may influence the ability of katydids to
react to predator-specific ultrasound on the ground is the presence or absence
of ultrasonic components in their calling songs.
An additional complication is found in the subfamily Phaneropterinae (e.g.
Amblycorypha spp.) in which males and females both sing in a duet;
the female usually produces a short tick in response to the male song, which
the male then uses for phonotaxis (Bailey,
2003
). The curves presented in
Fig. 4 can be considered
equivalent to intensity–response curves, which measure the response of a
neuron to a given stimulus at increasing intensities. Although the number and
rates of T-cell spiking do not differ greatly, the shapes of these curves
differ between species. For N. ensiger, the T-cell had a large
dynamic range with the number and rate of spikes increasing in a continuous
manner over a range of 40 dB, typical of the intensity–response curves
for ultrasound reported for N. ensiger by Faure and Hoy
(Faure and Hoy, 2000b
). For
A. oblongifolia, however, the T-cell had a small dynamic range with
the number and rate of T-cell spikes increasing up to 55 or 60 dB peSPL and
then remaining constant. This latter pattern is similar to that seen for
Amblycorypha rotundifolia
(Forrest et al., 2006
) and
Ancistrura nigrovittata, Phaneropterinae
(Stumpner and Molina, 2006
),
and the T-cell response of N. ensiger to audible sound
(Faure and Hoy, 2000b
).
Females of An. nigrovittata demonstrate a similar behavioural
response, with peak response rates to male calling song at 50–60 dB
(Dobler et al., 1994a
). We
plotted the best frequency for the T-cell as a function of calling song
frequency for 13 katydid species published in the literature, and female
calling song frequency was used for phaneropterines
(Fig. 6). We suggest that
phaneropterine katydids may have T-cell responses that track calling song
whereas katydid species of other subfamilies do not. The response latency of
female Phaneropterine katydids can be extremely short [15–50 ms
(Dobler et al., 1994b
;
Heller and von Helversen,
1986
)] and is comparable to latencies for ultrasound acoustic
startle responses in various insect groups (reviewed in
Faure and Hoy, 2000a
). It
could be that the same neural circuit has been adapted to different functions
in different groups of katydids.
|
Given the great diversity of calling songs and mate finding strategies in
the Tettigoniidae, it would not be surprising to find variety in the function
of auditory interneurons as well (Faure
and Hoy, 2000c
; Schulze and
Schul, 2001
). Our prediction of lower sensitivity to predator cues
in a low duty cycle katydid was not borne out by our results, but if the
T-cell has adapted for use in mate location during singing for A.
oblongifolia, this may equate to the same thing. Differences in the
apparent role of the T-cell as either a predator or mate detector across a
variety of taxa could reflect gaps in our knowledge of how this cell functions
across such a diverse taxon. Research on the response of the T-cell to
predatory and conspecific cues in phylogenetically diverse katydid species is
necessary to elucidate the evolution of function in this neuron and we should
not expect uniformity in that function. We suggest that the ability of
katydids to mount a secondary defence against gleaning bats (i.e. song
cessation) depends on factors specific to the lifestyle of each species such
as the amount of ultrasound in the calling song, calling song duty cycle, mate
finding strategy and gleaning bat predation pressure.
| Acknowledgments |
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