While humans may be the only ones with a day dedicated to celebrating romantic love, rest assured that the semblance of ‘love’ is alive and well in the animal kingdom too. While ‘love’ in this context may not hold the … Continue reading
The post Valentine’s Day Couples in the Animal Kingdom appeared first on EveryONE.
When most people think of Valentine’s Day, images of love, candy, and flowers pop to mind. However, this Valentine’s Day, we thought we’d share two animals with you that use scales, wings, and other things to create songs that attract that special someone.
Male moths use a combination of pheromones and ultrasound—sound with frequencies above the range of human hearing—to woo females. To better understand moth sounds during courtship, researchers in this PLOS ONE study recorded and examined the ultrasounds emitted by three types of grass moths. They found that two of the three moth species had sex-specific wing and thoracic scales that played a role in ultrasound production, and that using these scales increased mating success. This audio clip is the recorded ultrasound of Ostrinia nubilalis (pictured above), aka the European corn borer, slowed down 10 times so that human ears can hear it.
Rapid wing fanning is the attraction tool of choice for male wasps when courting females. According to this PLOS ONE study, parasitic wasp wing fanning has been studied before, but the mechanism for how the sound is generated has not. The researchers characterized the wasp songs and found that they contain a two-part signal with sequences of buzzes and boing sounds. While scientists could characterize the male courtship songs, how they produce the sound remains a mystery. This audio clip starts with wing fanning, which produces a buzz sound, and is followed by a series of boing sounds.
Whether you choose to scale, buzz, or boing to impress your mate with beautiful music, we wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day from PLOS ONE!
Citations:
Takanashi T, Nakano R, Surlykke A, Tatsuta H, Tabata J, et al. (2010) Variation in Courtship Ultrasounds of Three Ostrinia Moths with Different Sex Pheromones. PLoS ONE 5(10): e13144. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013144
Bredlau JP, Mohajer YJ, Cameron TM, Kester KM, Fine ML (2013) Characterization and Generation of Male Courtship Song in Cotesia congregata(Hymenoptera: Braconidae). PLoS ONE 8(4): e62051. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062051
Image Credits:
Photo a Ostrinia nubilalis by dhobern. Heart added by us.
Dorsal view of one pair of wings of a male Cotesia congregata. Figure 8. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062051.g008
The post Buzz Me Baby: Unusual Courtship Songs for Valentine’s Day appeared first on EveryONE.
Animal emotion remains a fairly contentious area of scientific research, but there is a growing body of evidence to support the idea that nonhuman animals can have feelings. The scientific community may not be ready to use the “L” word for animals, but we are beginning to understand that they do form relationships that are both more complex and insightful than they initially appeared.
While the birds and the bees don’t pre-order roses online or bust out heart-shaped boxes of chocolate for Valentine’s Day, many animal species—yes, even insects and spiders—exhibit courtship behavior to woo their mates (singing mice, anyone?). On the opposite end of the spectrum, animals can also be sneaky and engage in promiscuous behavior that rivals the latest plotline from your favorite soap opera. The physical, chemical, mental, and emotional drivers behind these behaviors are still under active investigation by the scientific community, and we have a few handy examples published in PLOS ONE.
In “Heaven It’s My Wife! Male Canaries Conceal Extra-Pair Courtships but Increase Aggressions When Their Mate Watches,” male domestic canaries, known to be socially monogamous, altered their courtship behavior toward females depending on the audience. Males were generally more aggressive with females around than with males or no one present. Males also courted other females more if their mates weren’t around, which the authors suggested may imply that there are costs (“divorce”) associated with courting other females while a mate watches. Tsk, tsk.
While canaries may be coy, some of our closest relatives display some of the fiercest aggressive and competitive behavior. In the recently published “Till Death (Or an Intruder) Do Us Part: Intrasexual-Competition in a Monogamous Primate,” owl monkey pairs were broken up by intruding “floater” monkeys, which in some cases, resulted in serious consequences for the ousted monkey: disappearance or death. These breakups also had a negative effect on the reproductive success of both the male and female monkey in the pair. Lasting monogamous owl monkey couples produced 25% more offspring than monkeys with two or more partners.
Are animals always heartbreakers? In what researchers consider an act of monogamy, pair-bonded California mice in this study refrained from scent marking when given the opportunity. This may not seem like a proud display of love and loyalty, but in the animal kingdom, scent marking can be a form of advertising for new females. The researchers also found that virgin male mice still participated in scent-marking behavior, providing further evidence that the other animals’ restraint was related specifically to pair bonding.
Just as we see behavioral differences in the animal kingdom, there’s certainly a lot of variety in human love and relationships. Regardless, we’d like to wish you all a happy Valentine’s Day!
Citations:
Hanson JL, Hurley LM (2012) Female Presence and Estrous State Influence Mouse Ultrasonic Courtship Vocalizations. PLoS ONE 7(7): e40782. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0040782
Panksepp J (2011) Cross-Species Affective Neuroscience Decoding of the Primal Affective Experiences of Humans and Related Animals. PLoS ONE 6(9): e21236. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021236
Ung D, Amy M, Leboucher G (2011) Heaven It’s My Wife! Male Canaries Conceal Extra-Pair Courtships but Increase Aggressions When Their Mate Watches. PLoS ONE 6(8): e22686. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022686
Fernandez-Duque E, Huck M (2013) Till Death (Or an Intruder) Do Us Part: Intrasexual-Competition in a Monogamous Primate. PLoS ONE 8(1): e53724. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053724
Image credit:
Monkey image, M. Corley/Owl Monkey Project
Graph, PLOS ONE paper, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053724