The colorful language of insects

The "language" of insects is colorful and their expression methods are also diverse. Unfortunately, humans know very little about this "language" so far. Some aspects have only just been explored, and some have not yet been explored. Nonetheless, we can believe that with the continuous improvement of human understanding and the further improvement of research technology, humans will unravel the mystery of insect "language" more and more deeply, and use this knowledge to actively and effectively control the behavior of insects. .

1. Visual language

1. Dance language

The dance language of insects plays a major role in the process of transmitting information. This role is particularly prominent in bees and is also obvious in butterflies.

In the social life of bees, worker bees are responsible for the arduous tasks of building nests, collecting flour, making honey, and raising children. Before a large number of worker bees leave the nest to collect honey, they first send out "scout bees" to find honey sources. When the scout bees find a honey source within 100 meters of the hive, they report back to the hive. In addition to leaving tracking information, they also alternately turn left or right in small circles on the hive, crawling in a "circle dance". If the nectar source is more than 100 meters away from the beehive, the scout bees will change their dance posture into a "∞" shape, so it is also called the "figure 8 dance" or "tail wagging dance". If all crawling routes are connected, the longer the straight crawling time, the farther away from the honey source. If the straight crawl lasts for 1 second, it means that the distance to the honey source is about 500 meters; if it lasts for 2 seconds, it means that the distance is about 1,000 meters. When the scout bees perform this kind of performance, the surrounding worker bees will stretch out the antennae on their heads to collide with the dancer's body first, perhaps to learn information from it. The "tail wagging dance" performed by scout bees not only indicates the distance from the honey source, but also plays a role in specifying the direction. The direction of the nectar source is represented by the angle formed by the central axis in the hive during the "wag dance". In case of cloudy and rainy days, the method of using dance positioning will be a bit ineffective. The bees will also change their index in time, rely on the polarized beam reflected from the sky to determine their orientation, and return to the nest in time. People may ask, how do other friends understand the various dance moves performed by worker bees in the dark beehive? It turns out that when they use the trembling tentacles on their heads to touch the body of the worker bees, they convert the "dance language" into "contact" Language" to obtain information. This delivery method sometimes fails. To this end, they also use the constant vibration of their wings to emit "buzzing" sounds of different frequencies to supplement the lack of "dance language" and enhance the expressive ability of the tone.

Butterflies among Lepidoptera insects also often use "dance language" to express the friendship between members of the same species and the opposite sex. After the male and female butterflies emerge from their pupae, they choose sunny weather to chase and play in the forest wilderness and among the flowers. They are sometimes high and sometimes low, sometimes far and sometimes close, dancing inseparable "courtship dance" to express their respective feelings. After flying around to their heart's content, they choose the host plants that their children will like to stay and touch each other with their tentacles. When the female accepts courtship, she begins the "bridal chamber sex". After the male butterfly leaves, the female butterfly lays fertilized eggs to achieve the purpose of propagation. The courtship "dance language" of the four-spotted butterfly is even more peculiar. When male and female individuals approach each other after sexual maturity, the male butterfly flaps its wings tenderly and slowly flies in a semicircle around the male butterfly to show courtship. After the male butterfly flies around for a few times, the female butterfly keeps waving her antennae to show her acceptance of courtship. At this time, the two came close to each other, touching each other's wing edges with their feet and antennae, and then calmed down and shared joy. Ribbon swallowtail butterflies can be said to be a match made in heaven. The male butterfly has an elegant body color, with a white dress and white skirt, lined with black and red spots; the female butterfly has a rich and gorgeous body color, with a black dress and brown skirt, inlaid with red lace. After emerging from pupae and becoming butterfly queens, they fall in love with each other and are inseparable, lingering among the flowers and expressing their tenderness to each other in the "language of dance".

2. Color language

Although the images they can see are blurry, butterflies have a very strong ability to distinguish colors. Some people believe that when butterflies fly among flowers and choose flowers, they do not judge them by their appearance, but by their color. When male butterflies are looking for a "mate", they first use their eyes to distinguish whether the partner has patterns on their wings. Belong to the "same race". It has also been found that flies require a coordinated stimulation of the host plant's color, shape and chemical odor when laying eggs.

2. Chemical Language

1. Sex pheromones

The hormones released by insects into the air to attract the opposite sex to mate are called sex pheromones. Moths usually secrete sex pheromones, so using sex pheromones to control them can achieve good results. The method is to put the female moth into a sarong and hang it in the pine forest. When the chemical odor released by the female moth is transmitted to the male moth with the help of wind and air flow, it not only tells him the existence of the female moth, but also clearly conveys the location and distance, making it easier for the male moth to track.

They are sex pheromones released by the same kind of moth, but their composition and structure are very complex and their effects are different. Some have 2-3 components, and some have 7-8 components. The more components there are, the more bizarre the role played in the language of smell. The female moth uses sex pheromones to attract the male moth, who stops next to her to court and mate. This multi-sentimental process is the process of using different components or different concentrations of released sex pheromones to express different languages.

2. Alarm pheromone

Insects release a chemical substance that mostly belongs to the terpene family when they sound the alarm. They can use this to cleverly tell their associates that when a disaster is coming, they should be more vigilant and try to defend themselves or escape.

Aphids are small in size and can only be measured in millimeters of juice, but their alarm ability is very strong. When an aphid group encounters an attack from a natural enemy, the aphid that first detects the enemy becomes excited, swings its limbs, and releases alarm pheromones in a timely manner. After receiving the information, the accomplices fled or fell to the ground to hide. Surprisingly, this signaling substance also "tips off" the attendant ants (ants that eat the honeydew emitted by the aphids and protect the aphids), prompting these ants to quickly search for the invading enemy and surround it. As the saying goes: "If you poke a hornet's nest, you will definitely get stung by a bee." Wasp stings are well-deserved. Once you are stung by a wasp, you will soon be besieged by a swarm of wasps. This is because when a wasp stings, both the sting and the alarm pheromone remain in the person's skin. The initial reaction of a person after being stung is to swat. The smell of the pheromone is spread into the air with the help of the waving movements when beating the bee. After other wasps smell this smell, they will immediately be in a state of irritation and turmoil, and can quickly and effectively kill the wasp. Organize attacks. Through the extraction and testing of the alarm pheromone released by wasps, it is known that its main component is amyl acetate and has the smell of banana oil. Therefore, once you are stung by a wasp, you can use 5% ammonia or alkaline substances to scrub it, which has the effect of relieving pain and reducing swelling. This is the result of neutralizing the acid and alkali.

3. Tracking pheromones

Some social insects often secrete this information substance to guide their friends to find food or return to their nests. There is a kind of fire ant that when they go out, they constantly smear their stings on the ground, leaving behind odorous traces, forming an "information corridor." Whether looking for food or returning to nest, they always go back and forth along this corridor without any mistakes.

When bees go out to make honey, when a worker bee discovers the honey source, it goes near the honey source.

Releases tracking pheromones to attract other bees. Even after carrying honey back to the nest, it can still rely on this breath to travel back and forth between the hive and the empty source. It has been observed that this information can be transmitted hundreds of meters. It has been found that the main components of the information released by bees are chemicals such as citral. Termites feed mainly on wood. When they are looking for suitable wood and living environment, they often travel in orderly lines and along a certain route, which is called "ant road". Ant trails are long-lasting information trails smeared with "tracing pheromones" secreted on the ventral surface of the fifth abdominal segment of worker ants. Ants also have this hormone. Scientists have done experiments like this: smearing ant tracking information outside the ant hole can lure some ants out of the hole. If the concentration of the ant is high, they will come out of the nest in large numbers, and can even make people with big bellies. The queen ant leads out of the hole. If this chemical is painted on the ground in a large circle, the ants will keep spinning along the circle.

4. Aggregation pheromone (also called aggregation pheromone)

It works like blowing a rally horn. For example, small beetles of the order Coleoptera, which are members of the family Coleoptera, specialize in causing damage under the bark of weakly growing trees. When a small number of individuals find a tree suitable for their parasitism, they release a pheromone from the hindgut. After this chemical interacts with the terpene compounds of the host tree, it can send out a gathering signal, causing the animals dispersed in a distance to Similar species gather and fly together, feeding collectively and causing harm. When the nutrition of the host trees where they live decreases or the conditions deteriorate, the adult beetles on the original host begin to secrete this substance again, which is intended to tell their friends that this place is no longer suitable for survival and it is time to move. So they can drill out of the bark of trees in a short period of time and fly in groups to more suitable woods to live.

3. Voice communication

Transmitting information through sound is a form of "language" in insects. Although insects cannot make sounds with their mouths, they can make full use of various vocal organs on their bodies to make up for this shortcoming. Although insects do not have two ears with helixes, they do have extremely sensitive hearing organs (such as auditory hairs, Jiang's auditory organs, tympanic membrane hearing organs, etc.). The special vocal organs and auditory organs of insects work closely together to form a sound communication system that transmits various "codes" between the same species.

The working people of our country have long been aware of the sound mechanisms and parts of different types of insects communicating. The ancient Chinese book "Grass and Trees" says that "locusts are green in color, have long horns and long strands, and they are also the ones with croaking crotches." "Piya" says that "the sound of flies is majestic, and the sound of blue flies is clear, and their sounds are all in the wings." It is clear. The "vocal language" of different insects is divided into friction sounds and vibration sounds.

The sound produced by the East Asian migratory locust is caused by the friction between the sound teeth on the compound wings (front wings) and the scrapers on the hind legs. The sound teeth are about 1 cm long, with a total of about 300 zigzag-shaped small teeth. The scraper teeth on the hind legs are few but relatively thick. When you want to make a sound, you first use four legs to support your body and assume a pronunciation posture, then extend your compound wings, bend your thick hind legs and lift them close to the compound wings at the same time, shaking them up and down rhythmically, so that the hind legs move up and down. The scraper and the sound teeth on the compound wings hit each other, causing the compound wings to vibrate, thus making a "chuck, chuck" sound.

Most frictional sounds are composed of 20 to 30 syllables, and each syllable is composed of 80 to 100 minor syllables. The frequency of the sound emitted is mostly between 500 and 1000 Hz, and different syllables represent different signals. Therefore, syllable transformation plays an important role in vocal communication between insects.

According to reports, the frequency of vibration sound of house fly wings is 147-200 Hz. Some people in China have studied the wingbeat frequencies of eight species of mosquitoes, and they are different for different species and genders. The frequency of wing beats of eight mosquito species can reach 433-572 Hz, and males are significantly higher than females. Farmers have a proverb: "mosquitoes that scream loudly do not bite." This is the truth, because male mosquitoes do not bite.

The sounds made by most insects are extremely small, and they murmur among themselves using a "language" that is difficult for humans to imitate. However, there are also insects that can make very loud sounds, and cicadas are outstanding representatives of them. Male cicadas have a sound generator like a big drum on their abdomen. They are like tireless "singers". Their loud "songs" can be heard everywhere from early morning to night in summer. It turns out that after mid-summer cicadas emerge from the ground, they can only live until autumn at best. In their short life, they have to seize the time to summon their "lovers" (female cicadas) with endless "singing". Interestingly, different types of cicadas emit different sound waves when they cry. For example, summer cicadas like to "sing loudly", while the "singing" of chilling cicadas always has a low and sad tone. In this way, individuals of one cicada will not pay attention to the "wooing" songs of another cicada. Even if it is the same kind of cicada, if there is something wrong with the "singing voice" of the male cicada, the "love song" "sung" by it will lose its attractiveness to the "love song". In addition, the triumphant cry of the winner during the cricket fight may be a kind of "victory song"!

Where there are articulators, there are auditory organs (ears). For the hearing devices of insects, see "Various Ears (Hearing Devices)". The ingenious use and sensitivity of "sound language" in insects are a bit like the "Big Brother" and "BP machines" used by humans, but their "language" is different from hearing.Whether the interaction between sensory organs has the same close relationship between human pronunciation and sound reception requires further exploration.

4. Light signal language

Insects with tiny bodies can cleverly use flashes (lantern language) to communicate. Fireflies are representative of this form of communication. At dusk in summer, among the grass and shrubs in mountain streams, it is common to see small lanterns hanging in the air, as if competing with the stars, or like a couple holding lanterns for a night out. If you use a small net to cover the "little light", you will see that it is a small beetle with a hard shell. Because the end of its abdomen can emit a little bit of fluorescence, people gave it an vivid name - firefly.

Fireflies belong to the order Coleoptera and the family Lucidae in the insect family. There are about 2,000 species of distant or close relatives. Fireflies are magical and beautiful insects. The slender and slightly flat body has a blue-green sheen, and a pair of tentacles with small teeth on the head are divided into 11 sections. Three pairs of slender, crawling feet. The male has well-developed wing elytra, and the hind wings are like fans, usually folded under the forewings and only extended when flying; the female's wings are short or wingless. The life of a firefly goes through four completely different insect states: egg, larvae, pupa, and adult. It is a complete metamorphosis insect.

Why do fireflies glow? It turns out that there is a layer of yellow powder under the skin at the end of its abdomen. Cut this layer off and put it under a microscope, and you can see thousands of luminescent cells, followed by a reflective layer. Surrounding the luminescent cells are densely packed small tracheae and densely packed slender nerve branches. The main substances in luminescent cells are luciferin and luciferase. When fireflies start to move, their breathing speeds up, and a large amount of oxygen is absorbed into the body. The oxygen enters the luminescent cells through the small trachea. When luciferin interacts with the luciferase that acts as a catalyst in the cell, the luciferin will be activated and produce a biological oxidation reaction. , causing the underbelly of the firefly to emit a bright green light. And due to the different breathing rhythms of fireflies, a "flash signal" that is bright and dark is formed. When you put many fireflies in a glass bottle, the glass bottle is like a powered light bulb, it will emit uniform light.

Different types of fireflies have different flash rhythms. A kind of firefly found in the United States. The male first emits rhythmic flashes. After the female sees this light signal, she flashes accurately for 2 seconds. The male sees the same light signal and approaches it to form a mate. couple. People have experimented with artificially emitting a flash of light for 2 seconds at the end of the female's luminescence, and the male worms will also be attracted. There is another kind of firefly. The female can send out the signal of "on and off, on and off" at precise time intervals. After receiving the "whisper" expressed in the language of lights, the male immediately sends out the signal of "on and off, on and off". The language of lights comes as an answer. Once the information was communicated, they flew together to spend the night together.

There is a kind of firefly, and there is a fierce competition between the males for mates. They can also send out false signals that imitate the female bugs to lure other males away so that they can monopolize the "girl".

The secret that fireflies can communicate in light language was first discovered by Dr. Lauder, a zoologist at the University of Florida. He spent 18 years studying the luminescence phenomenon of fireflies. It can be seen that it is not easy to uncover a mystery unknown to previous generations.

In addition to fireflies, there are many insects. They only fly between flowers after sunset and nightfall, collecting nectar and pollinating plants. In the dark night, they can successfully find flowers, which is also due to the "flash language". When nocturnal insects fly in the air, due to the vibration of their wings, they constantly friction with the air, generate heat energy, and emit ultraviolet light to "ask for directions" to flowers. Due to the exposure of ultraviolet light, the flowers arouse dim "nightlight" echoes and emit enthusiasm. An invitation; when the special structure of the insect receives the echo of the flower's "night light", it will fly away to pollinate the flower, causing it to bear fruit and pass on to future generations. In this way, the light language of insects also contributes to the prosperity of nature. Therefore, most nocturnal insects have phototaxis, and "moths flying into the flames" are a true reflection of this habit.

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