Chuche Julien, Thiéry Denis, Mazzoni Valerio
Santé et Agroécologie du Vignoble, Institut des Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin, Villenave d'Ornon Cedex, France.
Naturwissenschaften. 2011 Jul;98(7):639-42. doi: 10.1007/s00114-011-0808-x. Epub 2011 Jun 8.
Small Auchenorrhyncha use substrate-borne vibrations to communicate. Although this behaviour is well known in adult leafhoppers, so far no studies have been published on nymphs. Here we checked the occurrence of vibrational communication in Scaphoideus titanus (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) nymphs as a possible explanation of their aggregative distributions on host plants. We studied possible vibratory emissions of isolated and grouped nymphs, as well as their behavioural responses to vibration stimuli that simulated presence of conspecifics, to disturbance noise, white noise and predator spiders. None of our synthetic stimuli or pre-recorded substrate vibrations from nymphs elicited specific vibration responses and only those due to grooming or mechanical contacts of the insect with the leaf were recorded. Thus, S. titanus nymphs showed to not use species-specific vibrations neither for intra- nor interspecific communication and also did not produce alarm vibrations when facing potential predators. We conclude that their aggregative behaviour is independent from a vibrational communication.
小型头喙亚目昆虫利用基质传播的振动进行交流。尽管这种行为在成年叶蝉中广为人知，但迄今为止尚未有关于若虫的研究发表。在此，我们研究了葡萄斑叶蝉（半翅目：叶蝉科）若虫中振动交流的发生情况，以此作为其在寄主植物上聚集分布的一种可能解释。我们研究了单独和成群若虫可能发出的振动，以及它们对模拟同种个体存在、干扰噪声、白噪声和捕食性蜘蛛的振动刺激的行为反应。我们的合成刺激或若虫预先录制的基质振动均未引发特定的振动反应，仅记录到因昆虫梳理或与叶片机械接触而产生的振动。因此，葡萄斑叶蝉若虫既不利用物种特异性振动进行种内也不进行种间交流，面对潜在捕食者时也不产生警报振动。我们得出结论，它们的聚集行为与振动交流无关。
