Auditory signals mediate two important classes of behavior for crickets. In one of these-mating behavior-male crickets produce species-specific calling songs that serve to attract conspecific females for mating. The production of calling songs by males and their recognition by females requires the "coupling" or coordination of two different behavioral acts around a specific acoustic signal. Two hypotheses about how this "behavioral coupling" might be achieved in crickets as well as in other animals are discussed in this review. In addition, the problems of how temporal patterns of the male's calling song might be encoded and recognized by females is discussed in terms of two current hypotheses-the 30 Hz "simplicity" hypothesis and the more complex "trade-off" hypothesis. A second class of behaviors is also medicated by acoustic signals: predator detection. Evidence is presented that crickets, which fly at night, are subject to predation by insectivorous bats that use ultrasonic biosonar signals to detect them. The behavior displayed by crickets in response to ultrasonic stimulation closely resembles that of moths and green lacewings, which are two insects that are known to be preyed upon by bats.
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