Bioacoustic papers in Natureââââ

["XIAO, Jianqiang" <>]

Nature | Research Highlights
Nature, Volume: 470, Page: 9; Date published: 03 February 2011; 

Animal behaviour: Drummed into submission
doi:10.1038/470009d
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v470/n7332/full/470009d.html
Paper wasps divide the work of the colony between different castes: workers build and defend the nest, whereas individuals destined to become queens lay eggs. Wasps do not inherit these roles, but are instead set on a particular developmental path during the larval stage. Researchers have discovered how this occurs in the genus Polistes: queens use their antennae to drum near to or on nest cells containing larvae to turn them into workers.
Sainath Suryanarayanan at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his group used an electrical device to simulate this drumming on colonies that produce Polistes fuscatus wasps (pictured) destined to become queens. The wasps that emerged had the lean body type of workers. The link between the drumming — which for larger Polistes species is audible outside the nest — and gene-_expression_ changes is not clear.
Curr. Biol. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.01.003 (2011)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.01.003

Population biology: Whales found where whaling was
doi:10.1038/470009a
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v470/n7332/full/470009a.html
The North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is one of the world's rarest cetaceans, and little is known about its wintering or summering grounds, hampering conservation efforts. Now, researchers have documented signs of the whale in an area that was a whale-hunting ground in the late 1800s.
David Mellinger at Oregon State University in Newport and his colleagues carried out a year-long acoustic survey at five sites in and around the Cape Farewell Ground waters, an area about 500 kilometres east of southern Greenland. The team recorded more than 2,000 whale communication calls, mainly between July and November, suggesting that the area is still an important summer ground for the creatures.
The data will help to guide the relocation of shipping lanes and restrictions on vessel speed to prevent collisions with the animals.
Biol. Lett. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2010.1191 (2011)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.1191

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Xiao

XIAO, Jianqiang,
Ph.D.
Research Associate
Psychology Department
Rutgers
University
152 Frelinghuysen Road
Piscataway, NJ 08854