Behaviour of Insects

1. Presentation topic :
Communication in Insects.
Presented By:
Ammad Ahmad
The Islamia University of
Bahawalpur

2. Introduction
COMMUNICATION:
• It is the exchange of information between individuals.
• Most insect language is innate. And most of their
language is inherited, so each individual born with a
distinctive vocabulary that shared only with other
members of its own species.

3. Why do Insects Communicate?
1- Recognition of kin or nest mates.
2- Locating or identifying a member of the opposite sex.
3- Facilitation of courtship and mating.
4- Giving directions for location of food.
5- Regulating spatial distribution of individuals, aggregation or dispersal;
establishing and maintaining a territory.
6- Warning of danger; setting off an alarm.
7- Expressing threat or submission.
8- Mimicry.

4. Types of insect communication
1. Visual communication
2. Chemical communication
3. Tactile communication
4. Sound communication

5. 1. Visual Communication
•The colour patterns and other markings of the wings (butterflies and
moths) facilitate species recognition (like football players).
• Some insects use bright colours, eyespots or other distinctive
patterns to scare a way predators.
•Some insects use dance-like body movements to attract a mate or to
communicate with the nest mate.
• Most visual communicate are effective during daylight, but some
insects can generate their own light and use visual signals that can be
seen at night.
•Fire flies pulses of light are used in courtship dialogue between a
male (usually flying) and a female (usually perched in the vegetation).
Each species has a unique flash pattern and response time.

6. 2. Chemical Communication
It is the most common way of insect communication. These
chemicals are divided into 2 groups.
1- Pheromones: Chemical signals that carry information from one
individual to another member of the same species. These includes
sex attractants, alarm substance and many other intra-specific
messages.
2- Allelochemicals: Chemical signals that travel between
individual of different species. These includes defensive signals
such as repellents, compounds used to locate suitable host plant,
and other signals to regulate inter-specific behaviours

7. 3. Tactile CommunicationSocial insects, such as ants, often stroke and groom each other with their
antennae and mouth parts. Ants use touch and chemical signals to clean each
other with their antennae and mouths.
Bees use touch to communicate with other bees in the colony. When a scout
bee finds a new field of flowers for its food, it returns to the hive and does a
special figure-eight dance on the honeycomb. The other bees touch the scout
bee with their antennae and the movements of the bee during the dance tell the
other insects where to go to get to the food.
Bees dance
*Bees communicate by dance language.
*Bees use dance as a form of communication for distance and direction of
food sources or nest sites.
Types of dances
1- Round dance (running in a circle, is performed for close sites)
2- Transitional (or sickle) dance, For sites at an intermediate distance from the
hive.
This dance involves running in a semicircular (or moon) shape.
3) Waggle dance

8. 4. Sound Communication
• Sounds are caused by vibrations that can pass through air, water, and
solid structures
• Because sound waves move rapidly through air, acoustic signals can be
quickly started, stopped, or modified to send a time sensitive message.
• Although people can hear crickets, many insects make supersonic sounds
that are above a person's range of hearing. These supersonic sounds have
more than 20,000 vibrations each second.
•Some grasshopper and moths produce ultrasonic sounds as 80000 hertz.
Entomologist can study these sounds by using Audi-transducer.
• Most insects detect sounds with a tympanic membrane in their abdomen
(e.g. grasshoppers and moths) or in the tibia of the front legs (e.g.
crickets)
•Grasshoppers rub their legs against their wings to advertise their
presence. Many true bugs, beetles and ants make sounds by rubbing
various other body parts together

9. Thank
You