Department of Biology,
University of
Toronto at Mississauga,
3359 Mississauga
Rd., N.,
Mississauga,
Ontario Canada L5L 1C6
Sensoribehavioural Integration in Insects
How are the live of insects influenced by their sensory systems? How do some insects detect the echolocation calls of bats and use these sounds to avoid becoming dinner? How has the evolution and ecology of these insects shaped the physiological design of their ears? How do the auditory and visual systems of moths and butterflies differ in day-flying versus night-flying species? How have insect ears evolved and what has happened to them in species where they are no longer needed?
Sensoribehavioural integration is the process of how sensory systems both aid and limit the natural behaviour of animals. It differs from sensorimotor studies in that it incorporates evolutionary and ecological perspectives when designing and interpreting physiological experiments. I believe that the study of comparative sensory biology works best when it realizes the phylogeny and natural behaviour of wild organisms. I study the senses (mostly hearing) and behaviours of insects (mostly moths, crickets and katydids) and bats in temperate and tropical environments.
Below I invite you to read about the subjects under study in my laboratory at the University of Toronto, the Queen's University Biological Station and in places around the world.
Free-flight studies of bats and insects
We use a large screened flight room at
the Queen's University
Biological Station where we observe the behaviour of
bats and their intended insect prey while their flights and sounds
are recorded under near infra-red light to minimize the
disturbance caused by our presence. This cage,
built and maintained with the assistance of many, allows
us to examine defences and counter-defences of eared insects
and their echolocating bat predators. In recent summers
the "big box" has been home to Hannah ter Hofstede
and Reese Arh who
have been examining the gleaning behaviour of local bats and their
acoustic relationships with insect prey.
Since moths use their ears for
little else than bat-detection it is possible to study
the sensory co-evolution between the acoustic design
of bat echolocation and the physiology of moth ears. Moths
exist in a diversity of auditory conditions and we are conducting
comparative studies to understand how they are matched to the
bats for which they listen and how some bats have circumvented
this sensory defence. The bat pictured to the right is the
Western Spotted Bat, Euderma maculatum, a species from
central British Columbia that echolocates with a signal so low in
frequency that flying moths cannot hear it as it approaches.
Neuroethology of sound production in tiger moths
QUBS
Each summer the lab packs up and heads to eastern Ontario where the Queen's University Biological Station (QUBS) gives us a chance to work with real insects and bats. QUBS offers the opportunity to engage in neurophysiological and ethological studies in a natural environment as well as a place to replenish oxygen levels lost after a long winter in the city.
Here are the people who shared the QUBS lab this summer
(2009). Click on their names for
a description of their work.
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Representative publications
(PDFs are provided free of charge with the understanding that individuals downloading these documents do so in full compliance with local and international copyright regulations.
To read the PDFs you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader programme available (free) from here)
Fullard, J. H., ter Hofstede, H. M., Ratcliffe, J. M. Pollack, G. S., Brigidi, G. S., Tinghitella, R. M., Zuk, M. (2010) Release from bats: genetic distance and sensoribehavioural regression in the Pacific field cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus. Naturwissenschaften 97: 53-61.
Ratcliffe J.M., Fullard J.H., Arthur B.J., Hoy R.R. 2009. Tiger moths and the threat of bats: decision-making based on the activity of a single sensory neuron. Biology Letters 5:368-371. PDF
ter Hofstede, H.M., Ratcliffe, J.M., Fullard, J.H. 2008. Nocturnal activity positively correlated with ultrasound sensitivity in noctuoid moths. Biology Letters 4: 262–265. PDF
Charlat, S., Hornett, E.A., Fullard, J.H., Davies, N., Roderick, G.K., Wedell, N., Hurst, G.D.D. 2007. Extraordinary flux in sex ratio. Science 317: 214. PDF (Abstract only)
Fullard, J. H. 2006. The evolution of hearing in moths: the ears of Oenosandra boisduvalii (Noctuoidea: Oenosandridae). Australian Journal of Zoology 54: 51-56. PDF
Fullard, J. H., Ratcliffe, J. M. and Guignion, C. 2005. Sensory ecology of predator–prey interactions: responses of the AN2 interneuron in the field cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus to the echolocation calls of sympatric bats. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 191:605 –618. PDF
Fullard, J.H., Ratcliffe, J.M., and Soutar, A.R. 2004. Extinction of the acoustic startle response in moths endemic to a bat-free habitat. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 17: 856-861. PDF
Fullard, J.H., Dawson, J.W., and Jacobs, D.S. 2003. Auditory encoding during the last moment of a moth's life. Journal of Experimental Biology 206: 281-294. PDF
Teaching
Administration
Ontario
Field Course Programme (UTM Co-ordinator)
Bat (Euderma maculatum) photo credit: Brock Fenton,
University of Western Ontario
Moth (Cycnia tenera) photo credit:
Heather Proctor, University of Alberta
Field collecting technique photo credit: Annemarie
Surlykke, University of Southern
Denmark
Tahitian mountains
photo credit: Jean-Yves Meyer, Papeete
go to: UTM Biology
go to: University
of Toronto at Mississauga
go to: Department
of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto
