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Neuroethology of sound production in gomphocerine grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acrididae)

I. Song patterns and stridulatory movements

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Summary

  1. 1.

    The Stridulatory movements of several gomphocerine grasshopper species have been recorded by means of Hall-generators simultaneously with the sound patterns.

  2. 2.

    Most species are characterized by elaborate stridulatory patterns, the upward and downward movements being performed either in step-like fashion (e.g. Figs. 3c, 4d, 7c) or as a vibration (e.g. Figs. 10, 12, 14).

  3. 3.

    In many species the sound patterns produced by the left and the right hindleg differ from each other (e.g. Figs. 7 b, c, 10 b, c, 12 b, c). The hindlegs change their role from time to time. Except for one species (G. rufus, Fig. 14) this change depends upon proprioceptive feedback from both hindlegs. After removal of one hindleg the intact one henceforth produces only one of the two patterns in question and ceases to change to the other pattern.

  4. 4.

    Synchronous leg movements are extremely rare. In most species the two hindlegs move with a sometimes considerable phase lag (e.g. Figs. 5d, 12a, 14a).

  5. 5.

    As a consequence of this phase lag and of the differences in the left and right stridulatory patterns the distinct chirp patterns are partly effaced, i.e. the pauses between syllables and chirps, respectively, are filled up.

  6. 6.

    This striking feature appears incomprehensible in the light of all present theories of the sound analysing and the innate releasing mechanisms which are based on the principle of amplitude modulation. A hypothesis of sound recognition is discussed which takes impulse rate modulation and frequency discrimination into consideration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoologisches Institut der Universität zu Köln Lehrstuhl für Tierphysiologie, Deutschland

    Norbert Elsner

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  1. Norbert Elsner
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Additional information

I gratefully acknowledge the assistance and encouragement given by Prof. F. Huber. I am most indebted also to Prof. A. Michelsen for his contribution of a hypothesis on the mechanism of impulse rate recognition and to Prof. W. B. Broughton for intense and stimulating discussions. My best thanks are also due to Prof. R. D. Alexander, Dr. Dagmar v. Helversen, Prof. W. Loher, and Prof. T. J. Walker for their helpful criticism of the manuscript, to Dipl. Ing. K. Maaz and Ing. H. D. Schönemann for their advice on the use of Hall-generators, to Mrs. Regine Kuhn for technical help, and to Mrs. Hannelore Elsner for collecting the grasshoppers used in this study.

I am most grateful to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and to the Danish Natural Science Research Council for their generous financial support.

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Elsner, N. Neuroethology of sound production in gomphocerine grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acrididae). J. Comp. Physiol. 88, 67–102 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00695923

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00695923

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