Insect
Telephone Usage?
I came across an interesting
article recently from a Netherlands website, which tells of a
discovery by Dutch ecologist Roxina Soler and her colleagues
that aboveground and belowground herbivorous insects can
communicate with each other by using plants in the same manner
as a telephone.
Apparently subterranean
insects project chemical warning signals using the leaves of a
plant to send a message to aboveground insects that the plant
is already 'tenanted'.
It appears that aboveground
leaf eating insects prefer plants that have not yet been
occupied by subterranean root eating insects.
The chemical signals emitted
by underground insects through the leaves of the plant in a
telephone-like manner, warn the aboveground insects about their
presence.
This messaging enables
spatially separated insects to avoid unintentionally competing
for the same plant.
Discoveries over recent years
indicate that different types of aboveground insects develop
slower if they feed on plants with subterranean residents and
vice versa.
Incredibly, a mechanism has
developed via natural selection, enabling the subterranean and
aboveground insects to mutually detect each other, avoiding
unnecessary competition.
By using the 'green telephone
lines', subterranean insects can also communicate with
parasitic wasps who lay their eggs inside aboveground insects:
the natural enemy of caterpillars. The volatile signals emitted
by the leaves benefit the wasps, as these reveal where they can
find a good host for their eggs.
Apparently, the spread of this
phenomenon is still unclear, as this method of communication
between subterranean and aboveground insects has only been
studied in a few systems to date.
Now isn't that interesting use
of the telephone!!
This article was researched and
written by Ron Simonsen, Managing Director of Callsave Pty Ltd.
Callsave is a Telecommunications service provider
of long
distance telephone calls, specialising in cheap long distance calls within
Australia and cheap calls to International destinations.
Their website is at http://www.callsave.com.au
You can email Ron at ron@callsave.com.au
©
2008 Callsave Pty Ltd
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