ArticleCommunications biology2021
Sound vs. light: wing-based communication in Carboniferous insects.
Article in Communications biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Palaeo-bioinspiration draws on the fossil record to advance innovation.Communications biology · 2025Review
- WingAnalogy: a computer vision-based tool for automated insect wing asymmetry and morphometry analysis.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- High acoustic diversity and behavioral complexity of katydids in the Mesozoic soundscape.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
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9 authors.
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Abstract
Acoustic communication is well-known in insects since the Mesozoic, but earlier evidence of this behavior is rare. Titanoptera, an 'orthopteroid' Permian-Triassic order, is one of the few candidates for Paleozoic intersex calling interactions: some specimens had highly specialized broadened zones on the forewings, which are currently considered-despite inconclusive evidence-as 'resonators' of a stridulatory apparatus. Here we argue that the stridulatory apparatus hypothesis is unlikely because the Titanoptera lack a stridulatory file on their bodies, legs or wings. Instead, comparing these broadened zones with similar structures in extant locusts, flies, and fossil damselflies, we find evidence that the Titanoptera used their wings to produce flashes of light and/or crepitated sounds. Moreover, we describe the first Carboniferous (~310 Mya) Titanoptera, which exhibits such specialized zones, thus corresponding to the oldest record of wing communication in insects. Whether these communication systems were used to attract sexual partners and/or escape predators remain to be demonstrated.
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