{"id":1588,"date":"2011-08-23T00:01:37","date_gmt":"2011-08-23T04:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/?p=1588"},"modified":"2011-08-22T22:54:21","modified_gmt":"2011-08-23T02:54:21","slug":"tuesday-tunes-call-of-the-dung-beettle-knowdaverbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/23\/tuesday-tunes-call-of-the-dung-beettle-knowdaverbs\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Tunes – Call of the Dung Beettle – Knowdaverbs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Ryan<\/a>When I first found this song, I had to double check that the artist actually titled it “Call of the Beettle”, and sure enough, it was spelled that horribly. I guess it’s supposed to be “hip”, I don’t know.<\/p>\n

With that settled, I was curious whether there was any scientific validity to a song about calling dung beetles, and it just so happens that there are plenty of dung beetles which signal one another through stridulation! Take for example Aphodius ater<\/em>, a European dung beetle which has been shown to serenade ladies over a fine meal of barn yard waste (Hirschberger, 2001)!<\/p>\n

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Aphodius ater<\/em> – photo by BioImages – the Virtual Fieldguide (UK) (CC BY-NC-SA accessed via EOL)<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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It seems that most (if not all) of the 1200 Aphodius<\/em> species communicate in a similar manner (Kasper & Hirschberger, 2005). The sounds themselves are made by rubbing a file (found on the base of the membranous hind wings) against a structure known as the plectrum on the first abdominal segment. As can be seen, the structures are variable between species, and so are the resulting songs.<\/p>\n

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Aphodius Stridulatory Morphology from Kasper & Hirschberger 2005 <\/p><\/div>\n

\"Kaspar<\/a>

Aphodius Stridulation Patterns from Kasper & Hirschberger 2005<\/p><\/div>\n

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So now that we know that the artist can’t spell but does have\u00a0 a solid handle on scarab beetle biology, lets check out the song!<\/p>\n