news @ nature.com - Termites tune in to food frequencies - Insects choose their meal using vibration signals. ˇ Nature Publishing Group, publisher of Nature, and other science journals and reference works NATURE.COMhttp://www.nature.com/news/NATUREJOBSNATUREEVENTSABOUT NPG helpHelp site index Nature.com site index news at nature.com - the best in science journalism USERNAME: PASSWORD: Save password ? | Forgotten password? SEARCH Advanced search my account e-alerts subscribe register Home > News Home News Features Columns & blogs Archive Archive Specials In focus Food Future computing Gulf War syndrome Stem cells Bird flu Mars Stories by subject NEWS CHANNELS My news Biotechnology Careers Drug discovery Earth and environment Medical Research Physical Sciences naturejobs Research ScientistLake Biwa MuseumShiga, Japan FacultyBiological SciencesUniversity of California San FranciscoSan Francisco, CA United States News Published online: 21 February 2005; | doi:10.1038/news050221-4 Termites tune in to food frequencies Roxanne Khamsi Insects choose their meal using vibration signals. Noisy eating helps termites choose their meal. D. McClenaghan Forget the taste of your meal, how does it sound? That's the question that termites ask themselves when chomping into wood, an Australian study suggests. It seems that these insects choose what to eat according to the way each piece of wood vibrates in response to their gnashing jaws. The finding could lead to new approaches to controlling termite damage, say researchers. The scientists examined the feeding behaviour of the drywood termite species Cryptotermes domesticus, which thrives in several continents. Close relatives in the Kalotermes termite genus wreak havoc on homes in Europe. Scientists know that C. domesticus prefers eating small rather than large pieces of wood in the wild, but they were mystified about exactly how the termites made this choice. So the Australian group recorded the sound generated as termites tunnelled into pinewood, a common building material. "Almost all wood-eating pest termites find it very palatable... unfortunately," says Theodore Evans of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Canberra, Australia. Along with engineer Joseph Lai of the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra and his colleagues, Evans found that when termites chewed their way through a 20-millimetre-long wood block, the sound of their bites created a vibration of 7.2 kilohertz. Termites in a similar block that was 160 millimetres long generated a slower vibration at 2.8 kilohertz, which would match a high F note from a xylophone. Size matters Given the choice, the termites showed a clear preference for the smaller block. They were even more attracted than normal to the 20-millimetre block when its usual 7.2-kilohertz sound was boosted in volume. In this case, the insects burrowed four times more into the shorter block than the longer, clearly preferring the sounds of a small block of wood. The discovery about termites' use of sound has excited the scientific Send to a friend Printer format e-alerts Recommend to your library live newsfeeds relateds Plant has taste for termites 03 January 2002 Singing for supper 26 May 2000 Domestic violence and divorce, termite-style 28 January 1999 Stretching the limits of hearing 27 August 1998 linkout Termite tutorial Protecting your home against termites ADVERTISEMENT Saturn Submits to a Planetary Paparazzo Back to Square One The Diet That Fits HIV Protein's Protean Prowess Revealed more file:///D|/Dokumenty/PŘEDNÁŠKY/Fyziologie bezobratlých/Materi...ncies - Insects choose their meal using vibration signals.htm (1 z 3) [14.9.2005 14:01:30] Odeslat dotaz Odeslat dotaz news @ nature.com - Termites tune in to food frequencies - Insects choose their meal using vibration signals. More science jobs Feedback About this site About us For librarians TOP STORIES Engineers devise invisibility shield 28 February 2005 Female eggs grown in male testes 28 February 2005 Countries reject global mercury treaty 28 February 2005 Radio collars stress vulnerable voles 28 February 2005 Formaldehyde claim inflames martian debate 25 February 2005 Britain baulks at funding safety research 25 February 2005 Treaty triumphs against tobacco 25 February 2005 NPG PROMOTION community. "This is a landmark paper that will stimulate completely new directions of research," says termite expert Barbara Thorne of the University of Maryland in College Park. The findings appear this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1. As surprising as the termite insight may seem, even people use sound to select food. "Humans can appraise the quality or condition of food using vibratory cues: tapping a melon gives is a good indication of ripeness," Evans points out. Sound diet So why do these termites prefer smaller blocks of wood? "I think that drywood termites have evolved a preference for smaller pieces of wood because their greatest competitors are not interested in small pickings," Evans explains. ADVERTISMENTEvans says that a penchant for smaller wood, which is more easily transported from place to place, has also allowed these termites to spread easily. He adds that a better understanding of how termites select food could help people to stop the termites' damaging rampage through their best furniture. The study only looked at one type of termite, explains Thorne. "Other species and types of termites may well prefer larger pieces of wood," she says. After all, "humans tend to think that bigger is better, particularly when selecting among pieces of cake or chocolate." "This was the first study of its kind and we are expanding our work to other termite species, including subterranean termites," says Evans. Top References 1. Evans T. A. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. published online (2005). doi:10.1073/pnas.0408649102 Top For full access to the site and the archive, subscribe here: To receive all the daily news in your inbox each week, sign up for our email alert here: To see the latest news visit our homepage: Top news at nature ISSN: 1744-7933 Home | News | Features | Columns and blogs | Archive news | Specials | In focus | Stories by subject | My news | Biotechnology news | Careers news | Drug discovery news | Earth and environment news | Medical Research news | Physical sciences news | Feedback | About this site | About us | For librarians Nature Publishing 2005 Nature Publishing Group | Privacy policy file:///D|/Dokumenty/PŘEDNÁŠKY/Fyziologie bezobratlých/Materi...ncies - Insects choose their meal using vibration signals.htm (2 z 3) [14.9.2005 14:01:30]