Vibrational signals differ between contests and copulatory courtship in the red milkweed beetle Tetraopes tetrophthalmus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

What is it about?

Many insects send messages to one another by vibrating the plants they live on. This form of communication is underexplored, and many discoveries of the function and significance of these vibrations have yet to be made. Here, we add another beetle to the growing list of insects that produce vibrations to communicate. Red milkweed beetles are longhorn beetles, which commonly squeak when stressed. Stressful situations arise when males fight for territory or when females do not want to mate. We placed beetles in mating and fighting scenarios and recorded their behaviors. We discovered that red milkweed beetles produce vibrations through their milkweed host plant when they fight and mate. We describe the differences in the vibrational and temporal features that they produce during fighting and mating. Our results suggest that red milkweed beetles produce different messages under different scenarios. The function of these messages is still unknown.

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Photo by Grant Ofstedahl on Unsplash

Photo by Grant Ofstedahl on Unsplash