Dear colleagues,
we just published the first description of vibrational communication of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys), which opens possibilities for developing new control measures against this destructive pest some of you may be familiar with (at
least in the States, although it's starting to cause problems here in Europe, too). Please forward to people you know that work with BMSB. Reprints can be obtained by contacting me or the corresponding author.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/phen.12150/abstract
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Vibrational communication of the brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys)
J. Polajnar, L. Maistrello, A. Bertarella and V. Mazzoni
Physiological Entomology; Version of Record online: 14 JUN 2016, DOI: 10.1111/phen.12150
Keywords: Biotremology; Heteroptera; mating sequence; signal repertoire; substrate-borne vibrational communication
Abstract: Communication with substrate-borne vibrational signals is common in the family Pentatomidae, although this aspect of biology of the invasive pest
Halyomorpha halys Stål remains unexplored so far. In the present study, the behaviour of single animals and pairs is observed on a bean plant and a loudspeaker membrane at the same time as recording substrate vibrations with a laser vibrometer, with
the aim of adding to the existing description of mating behaviour. The male H. halys emit long, narrow-band vibrational signals spontaneously to which the nearby females reply with their own vibrational signals, triggering male searching. During this
phase, the insects emit two (in females) or three song types (in males) in various combinations, until they come into physical contact, after which the final male song type, characterized by tremulation, is the only kind of vibratory emission. Females never
start singing spontaneously and the mating sequence does not proceed if either partner is silent. Male signals do not attract males or females and so vibrations are unlikely to play a role in maintaining the aggregations that are characteristic of this species,
whereas female signals show promise for developing behavioural manipulation methods against this invasive pest.
Best regards,
Jernej
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