Social Plasticity Enhances Signal-Preference Codivergence.

AbstractThe social environment is often the most dynamic and fitness-relevant environment animals experience. Here we tested whether plasticity arising from variation in social environments can promote signal-preference divergence-a key prediction of recent speciation theory but one that has proven difficult to test in natural systems. Interactions in mixed social aggregations could reduce, create, or enhance signal-preference differences.

Combinatorial Signal Processing in an Insect.

AbstractHuman language is combinatorial: phonemes are grouped into syllables, syllables are grouped into words, and so on. The capacity for combinatorial processing is present, in different degrees, in some mammals and birds. We used vibrational insects, treehoppers, to test the hypothesis of basic combinatorial processing against two competing hypotheses: beginning rule (where the early signal portions play a stronger role in acceptability) and no ordering rule (where the order of signal elements plays no role in signal acceptability).