Vibrational Communication Signals in Mantophasmatodea: Species Recognition, Sexual Selection, and Population Differentiation

使用底物产生的振动来表示位置、物种身份或性别，被认为是一种非常古老的交流方式，在动物界中非常普遍。这种通信方式的漫长进化历史、出现的物种的显著多样性以及它在生物相互作用中的作用，为提出和回答关于物种识别、信号进化、性别选择以及通信信号在种群分化和物种形成中的作用等各种一般性问题提供了无与伦比的机会。底物振动通讯对行为和进化生物学的重要性与迄今为止仅对极少数动物类群进行的少量研究形成了鲜明对比。仅仅在13年前，昆虫目Mantophasmatodea(高跟鞋)被发现，从那时起，研究主要集中在分类学和系统发育重建上。然而，高跟鞋走行者的生物学，包括他们产生的振动信号的作用，仍然没有得到广泛的研究。无论男女，脚步行走的人都会用腹部轻拍底物(通常是植物的一部分)，以产生底物的振动。这些振动叫声可能用于物种识别和配偶定位，因为它们被证明是物种和性别特有的。因此，Mantophasmatodea是一个完美的模型系统，首次研究了捕食性昆虫中敲击振动信号的演变及其在种群分化中的作用。在这里提出的项目中，我们将研究生物多样性热点西开普省不同地区的几个种群中出现的物种的振动信号。将进行行为实验，以评估用于物种识别的振动通信呼叫中的决定性线索。我们将探索角色置换是否发生在两个或更多物种共处的地点。女性(和男性)的偏好将通过人工振动信号的回放实验来研究，以揭示性别选择对振动信号进化的影响。实地研究将允许优化半自然实验室设置。最后，将利用微卫星标记研究同一物种种群中振动叫声的可变性、体细胞和生殖器形态特征的可变性以及遗传多样性，以揭示西开普省曼陀罗亚目种群分化的现状。这将为深入了解振动通信可能在曼陀螺种群分化和物种形成中所起的作用提供洞察。

The use of substrate-borne vibrations to signal location, species identity, or sex, is considered a very ancient mode of communication and is extremely widespread within the animal kingdom. The long evolutionary history of this communication modality, the remarkable diversity of species in which it occurs, and its role in biotic interactions provide unparalleled opportunities to ask and answer various general questions concerning species recognition, signal evolution, sexual selection, and the role of communication signals in population differentiation and speciation. The importance of substrate vibrational communication for behavioural and evolutionary biology stands in high contrast to the little research conducted so far on only very few animal taxa. Only 13 years ago, the insect order Mantophasmatodea (heelwalkers) was discovered and since then, research has focussed mainly on taxonomy and phylogenetic reconstruction. However, the biology of heelwalkers including the role of the vibrational signals they produce has remained widely unexplored. Heelwalkers of both sexes tap their abdomen against the substrate (usually parts of plants) to create substrate vibrations. These vibrational calls probably serve for species identification and mate localization since they were shown to be species and sex specific. Mantophasmatodea therefore represent a perfect model system to investigate the evolution of percussive vibrational signals in a predatory insect for the first time and their role in population divergence. In the project proposed here, we will investigate the vibrational signals of species which occur in several populations at different localities in the Western Cape Region, a biodiversity hotspot. Behavioural experiments will be conducted to assess the decisive cues within vibrational communication calls which are used for species recognition. We will explore if character displacement takes place at sites where two or more species occur in sympatry. Female (and male) preferences will be investigated using playback experiments with artificial vibrational signals to reveal the influence of sexual selection on vibrational signal evolution. Field studies will allow for optimized seminatural laboratory setups. Finally, variability of vibrational calls, variability of somatic and genitalic morphological characters as well as genetic diversity using microsatellite markers will be investigated in populations of the same species to reveal the present state of population differentiation of Mantophasmatodea in the Western Cape. This will provide insight into the role vibrational communication might play for population differentiation and speciation in Mantophasmatodea.