Body vibration and sound production in an insect (Atta sexdens) without specialized radiating structures

Abstract

The leaf cutting antAtta sexdens stridulates using a file-and-scraper device (Markl 1968). The temporal and spectral characteristics of the cuticular vibration and airborne sound are fairly typical of the stridulatory sounds of insects that lack specialized radiating structures (Masters 1980). We used laser-Doppler vibrometry (LDV) to measure the velocity of different points on the ant's body during stridulation to determine what sorts of body vibration are produced by the impact of the scraper on the file, both in air and with mass-loading of the cuticle underwater, and how the vibration relates to this radiated sound. Show more