overview of signaling
discover VIBRATIONAL COMMUNICATION in insects
What is sound?
Vibrations that travel through the air or other media, like plant stems and water.
The sounds that we hear are actually vibrations - sound waves - traveling through the air, but vibrations travel through all sorts of substrata.
how insects generate vibrations
Most insects are herbivores that live on specific types of plants, so most insect vibrational signaling happens on the stems, leaves, and roots of plants.
Small taps, drums, and shakes on the plant send vibrations through the plant, that resonate and amplify, that other insects can pick up, sometimes up to several meters away. Here are a few examples of how insects generate vibrations to send messages:
Percussion
Insects physically tap their body (or parts of their body) on the plant. For example, mole crickets tap their forelegs on the ground, to let others know where they are in the burrow.
Mole cricket (Gryllotalpa brachyptera)
Photo: Antagain / iStock photo
Tremulation
Insects vibrate parts of their bodies, which creates vibrations in the substrate. For example, stinkbugs plant their feet and vibrate parts of their body to communicate with others on nearby plants.
Brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys)
Photo: Tom Myers / National pest management association
Stridulation
Insects rub body parts against each other. Often, this means rubbing a body part with nodules (the “scraper) against a body part with ridges (the “file”), much like the dragging a phonograph needle across a vinyl record. For example, crickets rub their hindleg against their forewing to generate sounds. Many beetles, weevils, bugs, cicadas, ants, and even some tarantulas use stridulation for communication.
House cricket
(Acheta domesticus)
Photo credit: Author unknown / farmersalmanac.com
Oak treehopper
(Platycostis vittata),
a vibrational
signaling insect
featured in
the composition.
Photo credit: Matthew Cicanese / Flickr
building this show
To capture insect vibrations, Sound artist Stephen Vitiello and Evolutionary biologist Dr. Kasey Fowler-Finn used a variety of hyper-sensitive, surface-based devices, including an accelerometer, a laser, and a recording needle, in addition to multiple professional-quality microphones.
They worked at different times of day, across multiple seasons, to capture insect conversations on the stems and leaves of plants. Vitiello then composed the work into 4 pieces, with each composition corresponding to the range of temperatures within which the recordings were taken.
Listen to sounds from the field
building the compositions
01. listen
to insect vibrations on a wide variety of plants in the field, at different times of day and in different temperatures
02. record
the vibrations using hyper-sensitive recording devices, including lasers and accelerometers
03. compose
by editing, amplifying and layering sounds to create an orchestral experience of insect communication
from the composition
conversations between insects
Insects converse throughout the day much like we do. They use vibrations to send a variety of messages, like warning others about a threat, attempting to find a mate, defending a favorite space, and managing the behavior of offspring. Here are a few of the conversations you’ll hear in the sound compositions:
Photo credit: Daniel Borzynski / Alamy Stock Photo
warning
An ebony bug signals that it’s noxious
parenting
A mama Oak Treehopper shushes her young
Photo credit: Thomas Shahan / Flickr
Photo credit: Ryan Hodnett / Wikimedia Commons (modified)