Acoustic Communication in Insects and Anurans
Common Problems and Diverse Solutions
542 pages
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5 halftones, 200 line drawings, 6 tables
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6 x 9
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© 2002
Walk near woods or water on any spring or summer night and you will hear a bewildering (and sometimes deafening) chorus of frog, toad, and insect calls. How are these calls produced? What messages are encoded within the sounds, and how do their intended recipients receive and decode these signals? How does acoustic communication affect and reflect behavioral and evolutionary factors such as sexual selection and predator avoidance?
H. Carl Gerhardt and Franz Huber address these questions among many others, drawing on research from bioacoustics, behavior, neurobiology, and evolutionary biology to present the first integrated approach to the study of acoustic communication in insects and anurans. They highlight both the common solutions that these very different groups have evolved to shared challenges, such as small size, ectothermy (cold-bloodedness), and noisy environments, as well as the divergences that reflect the many differences in evolutionary history between the groups. Throughout the book Gerhardt and Huber also provide helpful suggestions for future research.
H. Carl Gerhardt and Franz Huber address these questions among many others, drawing on research from bioacoustics, behavior, neurobiology, and evolutionary biology to present the first integrated approach to the study of acoustic communication in insects and anurans. They highlight both the common solutions that these very different groups have evolved to shared challenges, such as small size, ectothermy (cold-bloodedness), and noisy environments, as well as the divergences that reflect the many differences in evolutionary history between the groups. Throughout the book Gerhardt and Huber also provide helpful suggestions for future research.
“This is an extremely useful book for graduate students starting their research in the field of animal communication, as well as for lecturers preparing classes on animal behaviour, animal communication and neuroethology. . . . A comprehensive and easy to read treatise on acoustic communication, and in our university library graduate students are already lining up for a copy.”--Phillip Bishop, Animal Behaviour
“Nobody has greater breadth of experience in investigating animal communication than Gerhardt and Huber. This book is a model of an integrative approach to animal communication. It is breathtaking in its command of the wide-ranging literature and also exhilarating in its clear explication and careful evaluation. It will challenge all students of animal communication to master aspects of their studies previously neglected.”—R. Haven Wiley, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
“Two of the foremost authorities in animal communication have combined their considerable depth and breadth of knowledge to bring us a marvelous synthesis of how frogs and insects communicate. The strengths of this volume are its strong emphasis on the basic principles of communication and its integration of levels of analysis. It should stir interest not only in practitioners of animal communication, but also in those who study animal behavior, neuroethology, and evolution.”—Michael Ryan, University of Texas
“This book is a tour de force. The range of subjects covered is impressive, going from cellular neurophysiology to evolution. By every criterion this monograph is neuroethology par excellence.”—Mark Konishi, California Institute of Technology
“Gerhardt and Huber cleverly span the history of classical neuroethology, but in doing so move the discipline forward by combining proximate skills with approaches such as comparative analysis using molecular markers. . . . The literature is certainly rich and these authors have drawn their arguments together with skill.”—Win Baily, Trends in Ecology and Evolution
“One of the best recent books on animal communication. . . . . This book is remarkably diverse, yet this diversity was achieved without losing depth. . . . One of the best things about the book is that the authors generously highlight outstanding research questions at the end of each chapter. Many of these questions are not restricted to insects or anurans, but are more generally applicable. Thus, the book is a veritable gold-mine for graduate students looking for contemporary projects in communication, and the book creates a bench-mark by which future advances can be evaluated.. . . In a nutshell, this is a book that should b e on the bookshelf of anyone interested in animal communication or who wishes to develop lectures on communication for their animal behavior or neuroethology classes. It would make a particularly good book from which to structure an interdisciplinary graduate seminar.”—Daniel T. Blumstein, Ethology
“This is an extremely important book that points the way to the kind of science we can expect in the coming century, in which mechanistic and evolutionary explanations are integrated in a comparative experimental context.”—Matthew Cobb, Times Literary Supplement
“[The authors] emphasize a multidisciplinary, neuroethological approach to acoustic communication, ranging from cellular mechanisms to evolutionary theory. . . . In the short tine this book has been available, it has become a well-thumbed reference for my students. . . . I highly recommend it for anyone interested in communication by sound.”—Andrea Megela Simmons, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
“This book has many outstanding features. It boasts a clear writing style. . . . It is timely, comprehensive, and authoritative. The 1250 references alone would make this book a must-have for students of evolutionary biology, neuroethology, animal behavior, herpetology, and entomology. . . . It should serve as the definitive text in this area for the foreseeable future.”—Peter Narins, Copeia
“This is an extremely useful book for graduate students starting their research in the field of animal communication, as well as for lecturers preparing classes on animal behaviour, animal communication and neuroethology. . . . A comprehensive and easy to read treatise on acoustic communication, and in our university library graduate students are already lining up for a copy.”—Phillip Bishop, Animal Behaviour
"A valuable resource for any scientist of animal communications, behavior, neuroethology, and evolution. It would also be a useful supplemental or primary textbook for upper-level courses on these topics."—Northeastern Naturalist
Contents
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Acoustic Signals: Description and Peripheral Mechanisms
3. Neaural Control of Sound Production
4. Acoustic Criteria for Signal Recognition and Preferences
5. Processing of Biologically Significant Acoustic Signals in
the Auditory Periphery
6. Processing of Biologically Significant Sound Signals in
Central Auditory Systems
7. Sound Localization
8. Causes and Consequences of Chorusing
9. Acoustic Competition and Alternative Tactics
10. Female Choice Based on Acoustic Signals
11. Broad-Scale Patterns of Evolution
Appendices
Literature Cited
Index
1. Introduction
2. Acoustic Signals: Description and Peripheral Mechanisms
3. Neaural Control of Sound Production
4. Acoustic Criteria for Signal Recognition and Preferences
5. Processing of Biologically Significant Acoustic Signals in
the Auditory Periphery
6. Processing of Biologically Significant Sound Signals in
Central Auditory Systems
7. Sound Localization
8. Causes and Consequences of Chorusing
9. Acoustic Competition and Alternative Tactics
10. Female Choice Based on Acoustic Signals
11. Broad-Scale Patterns of Evolution
Appendices
Literature Cited
Index
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
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Biological Sciences: Behavioral Biology | Evolutionary Biology | Physiology, Biomechanics, and Morphology
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