Mating call
Mechanical calls refer to any other type of sound that the animal produces using unique body parts and/or tools for communication with potential mates.
Examples include crickets that vibrate their wings, birds that flap their feathers, and frogs that use an air sac instead of lungs.
Different aspects and features of bird song such as structure, amplitude and frequency have evolved as a result of sexual selection.
In song sparrows, males with large repertoires had larger HVCs, better body condition and lower heterophil-to-lymphocyte ratios indicating better immune health.
Since body size is a characteristic of good health, lower frequency calls are a form of honest signaling.
The female finches were bred in cages with two subsequent males that differed with varying amounts of song output.
Females produced larger eggs with more orange yolks when paired with a male with a high song output.
This suggests that the relative amount of song production in paired zebra finch males might function to stimulate the partner rather than to attract extra-pair females.
[15] However, the vocalizations of these toads provide a reliable signal of body size and thus fighting ability, allowing contests for possession of females to be settled without risk of injury.
[16] In the Mexican burrowing toad, males produce two types of advertisement calls when attracting females for mating.
In the Asian corn borer, males emit clicking sounds that mimic the echolocation of bats which prey on the moths.
As a result, the males use ultrasonic clicking as a more conventional mating signal, compared to the "deceptive" courtship song used in the Asian Corn Bearer.
In the field cricket, Gryllus integer, males rub their wings together to create a rapid trill that produces sound.
When in a potentially dangerous environment, males cease calling for longer periods of time when interrupted by a predator cue.
[22] Palm cockatoos use sticks to drum on hollow trees, creating a loud noise to attract the attention of mates.
[24] Mirafra apiata, commonly known as the Clapper lark, engages in a complex display flight that is characterized by the rattling of the wings.
However, peacocks exhibit a feature of sonation that reveals intrasexual and intersexual properties of this type of mating call.
In addition, females show increased alertness when hearing the infrasound signals produced by males' wing-shaking, which highlights how the two sexes use sonation to interact with each other.
In Gadoid fish, special muscles attached to the swimbladder assist in the production of knocking or grunting sounds to attract mates.
[27] In many lepidoptera species including the adzuki bean borer (Ostrinia scapulalis), ultrasonic mating calls are used to attract females and keep them motionless during copulation.
These can arise in the form of tonal, temporal, or behavioral variations in mating calls that subsequently lead to the separation of populations.
This leads researchers to suggest that the differences in mating call in the overlap zone of M. olivacea and M. carolinensis act as an isolating mechanism between the two species.
[30] From genetic and mating call analysis and, researchers were able to identify that two populations of the túngara frog were almost completely reproductively isolated.
From their research, scientists believe that differences in female preferences for mating call type have led to the evolution of this speciation process.
[31] Additionally, these subspecies are rarely recorded to have hybrid offspring, which further suggests that there is complete speciation due to mating call differences.
