Science Talk: The Origins of Novelty in Animal Communication

The Origins of Novelty in Animal Communication: A Tale of Two Receivers

Some of the most spectacular and diverse traits we find in nature are the signals that animals use to communicate with one another. But, how do new signals like songs, colors, and dance moves come to be? The processes that result in novel signal or receiver traits remain relatively unknown because directly observing the evolution of new traits is so very rare. How new signals arise, persist, and spread is also difficult to envision because new signal features should disrupt existing communication systems. Over the past seven years, my lab has discovered multiple novel mating signals in Hawaiian populations of the Pacific field cricket, a study system already well-known for rapid evolutionary change in response to a deadly parasitoid fly that listens in on cricket song to find hosts for their offspring. In this talk I will: 1) describe several recently evolved cricket types that produce altogether novel songs, 2) discuss how those new signals are produced, 3) consider the roles of intended and unintended receivers female crickets and parasitic flies), and 4) make some predictions about what’s to come.