Small, quiet crickets turn leaves into megaphones to blare their mating call
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Perched from a leaf's edge, males call out into the night by rhythmically rubbing their wings. Females survey ([sə:'vei] n. 縱覽,視察,測量,概觀,調查,俯瞰vt. 審視,視察,俯瞰,通盤考慮vi.) the soundscape, gravitating towards the loudest and largest males. Small, quiet types get drowned out.Unless they cheat the system.Some male crickets make their own megaphones by cutting wing-sized holes into the center of leaves. With their bodies stuck halfway through this vegetative speaker, male Oecanthus henryi crickets can more than double the volume (['vɔljum] n. 體積,大小,冊,卷,容量,大量,音量,份量,許多vi. 成團捲起vt. 收集) of their calls, allowing naturally quiet males to attract ([ə'trækt] vt. 吸引) as many females as loud males, researchers report December 16 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.It's a rare example of insect tool use that “really challenges you to think about what it takes to produce (['prɔdju:s] n.產品；農產品) complex behavior,” says Marlene Zuk, an evolutionary (['i:və'lu:ʃnəri] adj. 1 進化論的2 展開 [進展] 的; 演變 [演化] 的) biologist at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul who wasn’t involved in the study.Biologists first spotted crickets creating leaf-speakers, called baffles, and singing from them, or baffling, in 1975. Since then, the baffling behavior has been reported in two other species, but wasn't clear exactly how it benefits individual ([`indi'vidʒuəl] a. 單獨的; 獨特的; n. 個人，個體) crickets.Rittik Deb, an evolutionary ecologist ([i'kɔlədʒist] n.生態學家，生態學者) now at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India, was stunned when he first witnessed an O. henryi male ([meil] a. 男(雄)的; n. 男子; 雄性動物) baffling in 2008. “It was mind-bogglingly beautiful,” he says, “I had to understand why it was happening.”Deb, then at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, and his colleagues first looked for any commonalities among crickets who use baffles. Only 25 out of 463, or 5 percent, of crickets observed and individually marked ([mɑ:kt] a. 顯著的; 有記號的) at field sites outside Bangalore were seen baffling. On average, baffling males were smaller, and called more quietly when not baffling. In the field, Deb found that baffling approximately doubles the volume of a quiet male's call, raising them to the level of the most attractive ([ə'træktiv] a. 吸引人的，有魅力的) males.Cricket wings are essentially resonance structures, reverberating with the vibration caused by rubbing, sort of like the body of a violin (SN: 4/30/12). When bafflers crawl through a hole in a leaf, align ([ə'lain] v.將某物排列在一條直線上；與某人結盟) their wings with the leaf and start to sing, they're essentially expanding this resonance structure, using the leaf “a bit ([bit] n.鑽頭) like a loudspeaker or a megaphone,” Deb says.Do females fall for their inflated calls? Yes, according to lab experiments. When given a choice, females overwhelmingly prefer louder calls, even (['i:vən] a. 平坦的,偶數的,相等的,均勻的,連貫的,均等的,公平的,荹玫?平靜的,) when these come from baffling males. Baffling essentially evens the playing field, allowing quiet males to attract just as many females as louder males.The benefits of baffling don't stop there. The climax (['klaimæks] n. 高潮,極點,層進法vi. vt. (使)達到頂點,(使)達到高潮) of cricket mating is the transfer of the spermatophore, a protein ball packed with sperm. Females dictate ([dik'teit] v. 規定; 決定) how much sperm they accept by how long they retain the spermatophore. With larger males, it's about 40 minutes, compared with only 10 minutes ([mai'nju:t] n.會議記錄) for small males. But when Deb artificially boosted the calls of small and quiet males, females treated them like large males, retaining their spermatophores for longer. “That really surprised us,” Deb says. “It’s as though the females are in some sense being deceived.”It's unclear why females don’t seem to notice that they’re mating with a smaller male, though it’s not necessarily surprising. “They’re not wrapping their little arms around males to see whether they’re big or small,” Zuk says. “Maybe there’s something in the song that signals 'go ahead and have more of this guy’s babies.’” Whatever the mechanism, O. henryi males have evolved a remarkably effective mating strategy, Zuk says. The behavior appears to be innate, not learned, as lab-raised crickets of all sizes can make and use baffles when given leaves. “It makes me really want ([wɔnt] n.缺乏，貧困，需要) to know why such a small portion (['pɔ:ʃən] n. 部分,一份,命運,嫁妝vt. 將. . . 分配,分配,給. . . 嫁妝) of males actually do this,” Zuk says.**詞彙彙總**survey |
[sə:'vei] n. 縱覽,視察,測量,概觀,調查,俯瞰vt. 審視,視察,俯瞰,通盤考慮vi. |
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volume |
['vɔljum] n. 體積,大小,冊,卷,容量,大量,音量,份量,許多vi. 成團捲起vt. 收集 |
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attract |
[ə'trækt] vt. 吸引 |
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produce |
['prɔdju:s] n.產品；農產品 |
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evolutionary |
['i:və'lu:ʃnəri] adj. 1 進化論的2 展開 [進展] 的; 演變 [演化] 的 |
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individual |
[`indi'vidʒuəl] a. 單獨的; 獨特的; n. 個人，個體 |
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ecologist |
[i'kɔlədʒist] n.生態學家，生態學者 |
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male |
[meil] a. 男(雄)的; n. 男子; 雄性動物 |
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marked | [mɑ:kt] a. 顯著的; 有記號的 |
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attractive |
[ə'træktiv] a. 吸引人的，有魅力的 |
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align |
[ə'lain] v.將某物排列在一條直線上；與某人結盟 |
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bit |
[bit] n.鑽頭 |
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even |
['i:vən] a. 平坦的,偶數的,相等的,均勻的,連貫的,均等的,公平的,荹玫?平靜的, |
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climax |
['klaimæks] n. 高潮,極點,層進法vi. vt. (使)達到頂點,(使)達到高潮 |
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dictate |
[dik'teit] v. 規定; 決定 |
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minutes |
[mai'nju:t] n.會議記錄 |
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want |
[wɔnt] n.缺乏，貧困，需要 |
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portion |
['pɔ:ʃən] n. 部分,一份,命運,嫁妝vt. 將. . . 分配,分配,給. . . 嫁妝
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