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Biotremology: Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution pp 37–65Cite as

Vibrational Behaviour and Communication in the New Zealand Weta (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae)

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Part of the book series: Animal Signals and Communication ((ANISIGCOM,volume 8))

Abstract

Vibrational signalling is an important communication mode in different taxa of Ensifera (long-horned grasshoppers), even though crickets and tettigoniids are mostly thought of as well-established models for the study of acoustic communication in calling and courtship. In the New Zealand weta (Anostostomatidae), pair formation is not mediated by long-range acoustic communication. This chapter summarises the recent research that has identified the different means of substrate-borne vibrational signals used by weta. Notably, diverse behavioural contexts and signalling modes rely on vibrational signals: giant weta (Deinacridinae) mediate male–male agonistic interactions by dorso-ventral tremulation, ground weta (genus Hemiandrus) use abdominal drumming on plant substrates in pair formation, and tree weta (genus Hemideina) produce vibrational signals by tremulation in aggressive behaviour and by stridulation in defence. Such stridulation produces both airborne sound and substrate vibrations, and as in all other Ensifera studied thus far, the substrate vibrations are detected by mechanosensory organs located in the legs. The sensory elements involved in vibration detection are conserved among weta species with and without tympanal hearing organs, but show specific functional adaptations relating to the different modalities. While the importance and diversity of substrate vibration signals have been established for weta, further characterisation of these signals and sampling of related species will offer insights into the evolutionary divergence of vibrational signalling across the weta groups, and will support studies of the evolution of vibration detection and tympanal hearing in the broader Ensifera.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Peggy Hill and Andreas Wessel for inviting a contribution on biotremology, and Meta Virant-Doberlet for comments on the manuscript. We are indebted to Steve Trewick for providing the version of Fig. 4, and information on the taxonomy of weta species. We thank Oxford University Press and John Wiley & Sons for kind permission to reprint figures. We also thank Nataša Stritih-Peljhan for helpful comments on an earlier manuscript version. We acknowledge and thank the Te Atiawa, Taranaki, Ngati Tama, and Ngati Ruanui Maori Iwi, along with the Waikato Tainui for approval of research and access to the lands on which much of this described research occurred. Finally, we thank Dr. Larry Field for the research cooperation on H. pallitarsis at the Edward Percival Field Station, Kaikoura, New Zealand, and Dr. Corinne Watts for assistance with initial work with D. mahoenui at Landcare Research, Hamilton, New Zealand, and UNH students Brooke Woelber, Sarah Dodgin, and Megan Bezdicek for valuable assistance with giant weta field studies. J. S. is supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)—STR 1329/2-1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Institute for Animal Physiology, AG Integrative Sensory Physiology, Gießen, Germany

    Johannes Strauß

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA

    Daniel R. Howard

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  1. Johannes Strauß
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  2. Daniel R. Howard
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Correspondence to Johannes Strauß .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Science, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA

    Peggy S. M. Hill

  2. Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all’Adige, Trento, Italy

    Valerio Mazzoni

  3. Department of Organisms and Ecosystems Research, National Institute of Biology (NIB), Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Nataša Stritih-Peljhan

  4. Department of Organisms and Ecosystems Research, National Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Meta Virant-Doberlet

  5. Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery, Museum für Naturkunde - Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity, Berlin, Germany

    Andreas Wessel

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Strauß, J., Howard, D.R. (2022). Vibrational Behaviour and Communication in the New Zealand Weta (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae). In: Hill, P.S.M., Mazzoni, V., Stritih-Peljhan, N., Virant-Doberlet, M., Wessel, A. (eds) Biotremology: Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution. Animal Signals and Communication, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97419-0_3

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