主要研究 今天

丹尼尔·霍华德领导的一项新研究, 生物科学助理教授, has revealed that a species of giant weta found only in New Zealand’s Cook Strait region communicate with each other by sending vibrations through materials in their natural environment, 比如树叶, 土壤或植物茎. 这是第一次这些老鼠大小的昆虫(是的, 你没看错吧), 与北美蟋蟀有远亲关系, were observed using this particular type of substrate-borne vibrational signaling, 这是人类无法察觉的.

"Understanding how animals have evolved to solve adaptive problems like communication provides us with insights into not only how nature works, 但在这种情况下，我们如何进行物种保护."

研究结果最近发表在《永利app新版本官网地址》杂志上 昆虫行为杂志, are significant in part because they have implications for conservation efforts directed toward this at-risk species.

“Understanding how animals have evolved to solve adaptive problems like communication provides us with insights into not only how nature works, 但在这种情况下，我们如何进行物种保护, as it allows us to predict how human disturbances that produce vibrational noise might negatively impact animal behavior,霍华德说。. “Now we know that noise pollution in the form of substrate-born noise — such as that produced by wind turbines, traffic or other human-generated mechanical sources — might influence their behavior. We have started to study this experimentally to understand possible implications.”

维塔, 在土著毛利语中的意思是“丑陋之神”, 在新西兰与世隔绝地进化了八千万年. 没有天然的哺乳动物捕食者可以隐藏或逃避, 几千年来，湿塔变得很笨重, 换句话说，它没有翅膀，偶尔也会散发出难闻的气味, 很容易被发现和诱捕.

当啮齿动物在大约800年前到达新西兰时, 他们开始这么做了, 使大多数巨型湿地动物的数量急剧下降. New Zealand’s government has designated 16 out of an estimated 83 species of the four main types of weta for protection – and of those 16, 11种是巨型湿塔(属) Deinacrida).

研究团队, 包括嘉莉·霍尔, 主要研究生物科学助理教授, Ashley Schmidt from the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine and Andrew Mason from the University of Toronto at Scarborough, observed that vibrational signaling was most often used by males trying to intimate or scare off a rival when both males were in the presence of a female they were attempting to court. The vibrational signaling is effective because it’s encoded with important information about the signal’s sender, 包括阳刚和好斗. 通常, the males who initiated the substrate-borne communication won the confrontation and could proceed to woo the receptive female.

霍华德和霍尔，以及主要研究博士候选人 布鲁克Woelber and Sarah Dodgin ’18 are currently studying the Mahoenui giant weta at Warrenheip Reserve on the North Island of New Zealand. 在主要研究注册的本科生 Ecoquest study abroad program helped reintroduce this population of endangered giant weta to Warrenheip in recent years. Howard and his team and Ecoquest students conduct research at the reserve intended to aid in the species’ conservation.

除了马霍伊岛和库克海峡的巨型韦塔, Howard is also studying whether other giant weta species use substrate-borne vibrational signaling, and if the way they communicate has been influenced by their often harsh environments — a pattern evolutionary biologists call 生态物种形成.

据霍华德说, it isn’t the size of these remarkable insects that makes them worth studying and conserving.

“Insects represent the foundation of the food web for many larger species and provide critical ecological services to plants and other animals, 从授粉服务到养分循环,他说. “他们对环境变化也很敏感, 因此可以作为生态系统健康的指标. Recent worldwide decline in many insect groups is a warning that we need to refocus our attention on addressing environmental issues that will no doubt eventually affect us as well.”

This research is supported by funding from the National Science Foundation and the Orthopterists Society.