Earth Science: Behavior Patterns – Communication
Communication plays an important role in social interactions between animals. A variety of signs are used to exchange messages, such as optical and acoustic signals.
Signs for intraspecific communication frequently involve optical signals. Gestures, facial expressions, body coloration, and posture are all indicators of either aggressive or submissive intentions. The advantage of this type of communication is that it is quick and direct; the disadvantage is that these signals usually only work in close proximity of each other and under certain circumstances (for example, during daylight).
Acoustic signals are vocals or noises of any other kind. Often they are used to set the boundaries of a territory (for instance, the knocking of a woodpecker). Other typical acoustic signals include vocal communication, for example, between ducklings and their parents, or croaking in frogs. Chemical signals are often used as scent marks to set the boundaries of a territory.
They may also serve as path markers for ants or as pheromones to find mating partners (see in focus). Tactile signals-that is communication via body contact—is mainly observed in mammals (for example, social grooming among primates).
Ritualization
Ritualization is a fixed action pattern that has been changed during the course of evolution so that conspecifics may communicate with each other more explicitly and therefore more efficiently.
Courtship dances in many bird species are examples of such modified behavioral patterns where sections from other action chains, such as grooming of feathers or nesting behavior, have been incorporated. Roosters, for example, paw the ground during courtship like hens attracting their chicks. Body parts that are involved in certain communication signals are often particularly conspicuous and colored to emphasize ritualized movements.
For example, the male fiddler crab has asymmetric pincers. One of them is significantly larger and its function is to attract females that are ready for mating. Ritualized behavior, in general, also functions as an aggression control mechanism.
PHEROMONES IN SILK MOTHS
Chemical signals used for intraspecific communication in many animal species require such sensitive sensory organs that they are superior to any technological system built by humans.
The antennae of the male silk moth (Bombyx mori) are a typical example. They are able to detect pheromones produced by the females, even at tiny concentrations (about one molecule pheromone per 1,016 molecules of air), from up to several miles away.
BASICS
INSECT COMMUNICATION Certain ants are equipped with up to 15 pheromone glands to communicate with one another.
Honey bees even dance to communicate a find.