Sex And Death In The Rain Forest: A Matter Of Sound
A rain forest sings with the sounds of insects, birds, maybe a howler monkey or two. But scientists are discovering that some forest dwellers also communicate in ways humans usually can’t hear — via ultrasound.
A team from Dartmouth College has recorded these signals in treetops on a pristine Panamanian island called Barro Colorado, and slowed them down to make sense of them.
The ultrasonic chatter, it turns out, is actually a complicated conversation between mating insects and the bats that aim to eat them.
The insects are katydids, cousins to locusts and grasshoppers, which make their calls by rubbing their wings together. Some types live in North America, but the variety is nothing compared to the 250 or so species that live in Panama, where some behemoths are the size of a cell phone, and others are almost microscopic.
A white-throated round-eared bat (Tonatia silvicola)
catches — and munches — a katydid on Barro Colorado Island in Panama.
Katydids are “the potato chips of the rain forest,” scientists say. Christian Ziegler/ Minden Pictures/Getty Images
Panama’s katydids come in all sizes. The big one on the left is a Steirodon careovirgulatum. The little one is likely a new species for Panama. Biologist Sharon Martinson has tentatively named it Pycnopalpa sincordata. Courtesy of Sharon Martinson
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