Are eavesdroppers multimodal? Sensory exploitation of floral signals by a non-native cockroach Blatta orientalis

Abstract The study of multi-modal communication has only recently been extended to innate and learned interactions between flowers and their animal visitors, and usually only to pollinators. Here we studied the relevance of floral scent and visual display of a night blooming, putatively hawkmoth-pollinated plant Oenothera acaulis (Onagraceae) in the attraction of non-native cockroaches Blatta orientalis (Blattodea: Blattidae), which function as facultative floral larcenists in coastal habitats of central Chile. We experimentally decoupled visual (corolla) and olfactory (fragrance) stimuli by presenting paper corollas and green mesh bags, with or without a freshly-picked natural flower inside. We then contrasted the behavioral responses of roaches in these treatments with those to the natural combination of traits in actual flowers and their respective control treatments, measuring the roaches’ frequency of first visits, mean and total residence time spent in each treatment. The roaches primarily used olfactory cues when approaching O. acaulis flowers at two biologically relevant spatial scales. In addition, the presence of conspecific roaches had a strong influence on recruitment to the experimental arena, increasing the statistical differences among treatments. Our results suggest a primacy of floral fragrance over visual stimuli in the foraging responses of B. orientalis. Olfactory cues were necessary and sufficient to attract the roaches, and the visual cues presented in our manipulations only marginally increased their attraction within a 20 cm diameter of the stimulus. The full spectrum of floral visitation behavior was not elicited by the artificial flowers, suggesting the need for additional tactile or contact chemosensory stimuli not provided by paper. Although the nitrogenous scent compounds that we found in O. acaulis flowers are almost exclusively found in hawkmoth-pollinated flowers, the attractiveness of these compounds to a non-native, facultative flower-visiting insect indicates that they do not function as pollinator-specific signals for hawkmoth attraction.

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Modality-specific attention in foraging bumblebees

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.150324 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2 (10) ◽

pp. 150324 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Vivek Nityananda ◽

Lars Chittka

Keyword(s):

Visual Cues ◽

Bombus Terrestris ◽

Olfactory Cues ◽

Attentional Demands ◽

Future Studies ◽

Biologically Relevant ◽

Crossmodal Attention ◽

Sensory Modalities ◽

Multiple Tasks ◽

Set Up

Attentional demands can prevent humans and other animals from performing multiple tasks simultaneously. Some studies, however, show that tasks presented in different sensory modalities (e.g. visual and auditory) can be processed simultaneously. This suggests that, at least in these cases, attention might be modality-specific and divided differently between tasks when present in the same modality compared with different modalities. We investigated this possibility in bumblebees ( Bombus terrestris ) using a biologically relevant experimental set-up where they had to simultaneously choose more rewarding flowers and avoid simulated predatory attacks by robotic ‘spiders’. We found that when the tasks had to be performed using visual cues alone, bees failed to perform both tasks simultaneously. However, when highly rewarding flowers were indicated by olfactory cues and predators were indicated by visual cues, bees managed to perform both tasks successfully. Our results thus provide evidence for modality-specific attention in foraging bees and establish a novel framework for future studies of crossmodal attention in ecologically realistic settings.

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Floral Cues of Non-host Plants Attract Oligolectic Chelostoma rapunculi Bees

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution ◽

10.3389/fevo.2021.682960 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Hannah Burger ◽

Nadine Joos ◽

Manfred Ayasse

Keyword(s):

Visual Cues ◽

Host Plants ◽

Floral Scent ◽

Olfactory Cues ◽

Spectral Measurements ◽

Behavioral Experiments ◽

Oligolectic Bees ◽

Scent Profile ◽

Compare And Contrast ◽

Floral Cues

Oligolectic bees are highly dependent on the availability of the host plants to which they are specialized. Nevertheless, females of Chelostoma rapunculi have recently been monitored occasionally to visit Malva moschata and Geranium sanguineum flowers, in addition to their well-known Campanula spp. hosts. The questions therefore arise which floral cues promote visits to non-host plants. As host-specific floral cues are key attractants for oligolectic bees, we have studied the attractiveness of olfactory and visual cues of the established host Campanula trachelium in comparison to the non-host plants G. sanguineum and M. moschata in behavioral experiments. Chemical and electrophysiological analyses of the floral scent and spectral measurements of floral colors were used to compare and contrast host and non-host plants. The behavioral experiments showed that foraging-naïve bees, in particular, were attracted by olfactory cues of the non-host plants, and that they did not favor the Campanula host scent in choice experiments. Many electrophysiologically active floral volatiles were present in common in the studied plants, although each species produced an individual scent profile. Spiroacetals, the key components that enable C. rapunculi to recognize Campanula hosts, were detected in trace amounts in Geranium but could not be proved to occur in Malva. The visual floral cues of all species were particularly attractive for foraging-experienced bees. The high attractiveness of G. sanguineum and M. moschata flowers to C. rapunculi bees and the floral traits that are similar to the Campanula host plants can be a first step to the beginning of a host expansion or change which, however, rarely occurs in oligolectic bees.

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Adding colour-realistic video images to audio playbacks increases stimulus engagement but does not enhance vocal learning in zebra finches

Animal Cognition ◽

10.1007/s10071-021-01547-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Judith M. Varkevisser ◽

Ralph Simon ◽

Ezequiel Mendoza ◽

Martin How ◽

Idse van Hijlkema ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Visual Cues ◽

Sound Production ◽

Visual Stimuli ◽

Vocal Learning ◽

Song Learning ◽

Frame Rate ◽

Zebra Finches ◽

Video Content ◽

Biologically Relevant ◽

Video Images

AbstractBird song and human speech are learned early in life and for both cases engagement with live social tutors generally leads to better learning outcomes than passive audio-only exposure. Real-world tutor–tutee relations are normally not uni- but multimodal and observations suggest that visual cues related to sound production might enhance vocal learning. We tested this hypothesis by pairing appropriate, colour-realistic, high frame-rate videos of a singing adult male zebra finch tutor with song playbacks and presenting these stimuli to juvenile zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Juveniles exposed to song playbacks combined with video presentation of a singing bird approached the stimulus more often and spent more time close to it than juveniles exposed to audio playback only or audio playback combined with pixelated and time-reversed videos. However, higher engagement with the realistic audio–visual stimuli was not predictive of better song learning. Thus, although multimodality increased stimulus engagement and biologically relevant video content was more salient than colour and movement equivalent videos, the higher engagement with the realistic audio–visual stimuli did not lead to enhanced vocal learning. Whether the lack of three-dimensionality of a video tutor and/or the lack of meaningful social interaction make them less suitable for facilitating song learning than audio–visual exposure to a live tutor remains to be tested.

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Prediction limits of mobile phone activity modelling

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.160900 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 160900 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dániel Kondor ◽

Sebastian Grauwin ◽

Zsófia Kallus ◽

István Gódor ◽

Stanislav Sobolevsky ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mobile Phone ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Full Spectrum ◽

Left Behind ◽

Social Events ◽

Prediction Limits ◽

Spatio Temporal ◽

City Structure ◽

The City

Thanks to their widespread usage, mobile devices have become one of the main sensors of human behaviour and digital traces left behind can be used as a proxy to study urban environments. Exploring the nature of the spatio-temporal patterns of mobile phone activity could thus be a crucial step towards understanding the full spectrum of human activities. Using 10 months of mobile phone records from Greater London resolved in both space and time, we investigate the regularity of human telecommunication activity on urban scales. We evaluate several options for decomposing activity timelines into typical and residual patterns, accounting for the strong periodic and seasonal components. We carry out our analysis on various spatial scales, showing that regularity increases as we look at aggregated activity in larger spatial units with more activity in them. We examine the statistical properties of the residuals and show that it can be explained by noise and specific outliers. Also, we look at sources of deviations from the general trends, which we find to be explainable based on knowledge of the city structure and places of attractions. We show examples how some of the outliers can be related to external factors such as specific social events.

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Local- and Landscape-Level Variables Related to Poweshiek Skipperling Presence in Michigan Prairie Fens

Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management ◽

10.3996/122018-jfwm-117 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 375-390 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Clint D. Pogue ◽

Michael J. Monfils ◽

David L. Cuthrell ◽

Rachel A. Hackett ◽

Riley A. Zionce ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Host Plants ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Schizachyrium Scoparium ◽

Suitable Habitat ◽

Plant Biodiversity ◽

Biologically Relevant ◽

System Integrity ◽

Larval Host ◽

Weedy Species ◽

Larval Host Plants

Abstract The Poweshiek skipperling Oarisma poweshiek, Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae is a historically common prairie butterfly with a range extending throughout prairie systems of the upper midwestern United States and southern Manitoba, Canada. Rapid, range-wide declines have reduced the number of verified Poweshiek skipperling locations to one in Manitoba prairie, one in Wisconsin prairie, and four in prairie fens in Michigan. Our objective was to investigate parameter suites with the potential to be biologically relevant to Poweshiek skipperling occupancy with the goal of informing conservation efforts. At 18 prairie fens categorized as occupied (n = 9) or unoccupied (n = 9), we collected information on plant biodiversity, water chemistry, soil chemistry, site geometry, and surrounding current and historical land cover at three spatial scales. To address the complexity of these systems, we used multiresponse permutation procedures and nonmetric multidimensional scaling to explore associations between variable groups thought to be relevant to Poweshiek skipperling (conditions for suspected larval host plants, system integrity, and agricultural influence) and occupancy categories. We used indicator species analysis to understand the relationships between plant biodiversity and Poweshiek skipperling occupancy at whole- and intrafen scales. Multiresponse permutation procedures analysis suggested that conditions for suspected larval host plants differed between occupied and unoccupied prairie fens. At the whole-fen scale, we identified 14 plant species associated with Poweshiek-occupied sites, including two purported larval host plants, Muhlenbergia richardsonis and Schizachyrium scoparium. At the intrafen scale, we identified 52 species associated with unoccupied Poweshiek sites, including many weedy species and those tolerant of inundated conditions. Our results can inform the evaluation of potentially suitable habitat for introduction and reintroduction efforts.

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Food Avoidance Learning in Squirrel Monkeys and Common Marmosets

Learning & Memory ◽

10.1101/lm.5.3.193 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 193-203

Author(s):

Matthias Laska ◽

Karin Metzker

Keyword(s):

Avoidance Learning ◽

Visual Cues ◽

Squirrel Monkeys ◽

Olfactory Cues ◽

Saimiri Sciureus ◽

Common Marmosets ◽

Food Avoidance ◽

Robust Learning ◽

Olfactory Cue ◽

Potential Food

Using a conditioned food avoidance learning paradigm, six squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) and six common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) were tested for their ability to (1) reliably form associations between visual or olfactory cues of a potential food and its palatability and (2) remember such associations over prolonged periods of time. We found (1) that at the group level both species showed one-trial learning with the visual cues color and shape, whereas only the marmosets were able to do so with the olfactory cue, (2) that all individuals from both species learned to reliably avoid the unpalatable food items within 10 trials, (3) a tendency in both species for quicker acquisition of the association with the visual cues compared with the olfactory cue, (4) a tendency for quicker acquisition and higher reliability of the aversion by the marmosets compared with the squirrel monkeys, and (5) that all individuals from both species were able to reliably remember the significance of the visual cues, color and shape, even after 4 months, whereas only the marmosets showed retention of the significance of the olfactory cues for up to 4 weeks. Furthermore, the results suggest that in both species tested, illness is not a necessary prerequisite for food avoidance learning but that the presumably innate rejection responses toward highly concentrated but nontoxic bitter and sour tastants are sufficient to induce robust learning and retention.

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Smelling home: a good solution for burrow-finding in nocturnal petrels?

Journal of Experimental Biology ◽

10.1242/jeb.205.16.2519 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 205 (16) ◽

pp. 2519-2523 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Francesco Bonadonna ◽

Vincent Bretagnolle

Keyword(s):

Olfactory System ◽

Visual Cues ◽

Zinc Sulphate ◽

Olfactory Cues ◽

Nocturnal Activity ◽

Complete Darkness ◽

Visual Guidance ◽

Nest Recognition ◽

Return Home ◽

Nesting Habits

SUMMARY Many burrowing petrels are able to return to their nests in complete darkness. The well-developed anatomy of their olfactory system and the attraction that food-related odour cues have for some petrel species suggest that olfaction may be used to recognize the burrow. In contrast,surface-nesting petrels may rely on visual cues to recognise their nest. We performed experiments on nine species of petrel (with different nesting habits) rendered anosmic either by plugging the nostrils or by injecting zinc sulphate onto the nasal epithelium. Compared with shamtreated control birds,we found that anosmia impaired nest recognition only in species that nest in burrows and that return home in darkness. Therefore, petrels showing nocturnal activity on land may rely on their sense of smell to find their burrows, while petrels showing diurnal activity or surface nesters may disregard olfactory cues in favour of visual guidance.

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