Is disturbance stridulation in the passalid beetle Odontotaenius disjunctus a form of social communication?

Authors

• K. M. Robinson, University of Southern Mississippi
• Z. C. Mabry, University of Southern Mississippi
• H. Schonekas, University of Southern Mississippi
• K. Y.Robles López, University of Southern Mississippi
• A. N. Johnson, University of Southern Mississippi
• G. Cipriani, University of Southern Mississippi
• A. Nguyen, University of Southern Mississippi
• C. H. Ziemke, University of Southern MississippiFollow
• K. M. Baudier, University of Southern Mississippi

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-1-2025

School

Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences

Abstract

Among insects, stridulation (the rubbing of body parts to generate sound) is an important component of many essential behaviors including courtship, predator deterrence, and social recruitment. The subsocial passalid beetle Odontotaenius disjunctus boasts the largest acoustic repertoire of any beetle and performs a distinct type of stridulation when disturbed by predators. We investigated whether disturbance stridulation in this species functions as a form of social communication. Because O. disjunctus live in small colonies with high relatedness, we hypothesized that disturbance stridulation may serve as a warning to kin, potentially benefiting inclusive fitness during a predation event. To test this, we placed individuals from the same colony in an arena and exposed them to disturbance stridulations, observing behavioral diversity, whether each individual moved away or toward the sound, and time spent locomoting. According to information theory, behavioral diversity is predicted to decrease after communication has occurred. Adult beetles were significantly less likely to locomote and exhibited significantly less behavioral diversity when hearing disturbance stridulation than when they were in silence. There was no significant directionality to the movement of beetles toward or away from the sound source, whether in the treatment or negative control groups. Together, this suggests that these beetles respond to stridulation sounds with a “freeze” response rather than “fight” or “flight”. However, more work is needed to elucidate whether defense stridulation specifically communicates different information from other types of stridulation. These results encourage future research into the adaptive value of insect stridulation in social contexts.

Publication Title

Insectes Sociaux

Volume

72

Issue

4

First Page

513

Last Page

521

Recommended Citation

Robinson, K., Mabry, Z., Schonekas, H., López, K., Johnson, A., Cipriani, G., Nguyen, A., Ziemke, C., Baudier, K. (2025). Is disturbance stridulation in the passalid beetle Odontotaenius disjunctus a form of social communication?. Insectes Sociaux, 72(4), 513-521.
Available at: https://aquila.usm.edu/fac_pubs/22228