Acoustic Communication in Insects and Anurans: Common Problems and Diverse Solutions - Softcover

Gerhardt, H. Carl; Huber, Franz

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226288331 ISBN 13: 9780226288338

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2002

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

H. Carl Gerhardt is the Curators' Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Franz Huber is a professor emeritus and retired scientific member of the Max Planck Society and former director of the Division for Neuroethology at the Max-Planck-Institute for Behavioral Physiology, Seewiesen.

From the Back Cover

Walk near woods or water on any spring or summer night and you will hear a bewildering 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?

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, and noisy environments, as well as the diversity of solutions that reflect the differences in evolutionary history.

From the Inside Flap

Walk near woods or water on any spring or summer night and you will hear a bewildering 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?

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, and noisy environments, as well as the diversity of solutions that reflect the differences in evolutionary history.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226288331
• ISBN 13: 9780226288338
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 543