This book considers research on insect acoustic behaviour from two divergent approaches to insect behaviour. The first approach involves the current rediscovery of sexual selection and involves the testing of many hypotheses concerning the relative importance of different behavioural strategies to the fitness of the individual. The other approach considers the role of specific neurones within the insect's auditory system. This book aims to integrate these aspects of evolutionary biology and neurophysiology.

by fireflies on calling heterospeciflcs (Lloyd 1984) or the location of calling crickets by tachiniid flies (Cade 197 5). Sexual selection theory would predict that if there were any risks involved in mating then the sex offering the highest investment should take fewer of them. Given these factors and an inherent risk of detection by predators of calling individuals, males are more likely to signal than females (Thornhi111979). Further, if the quantity (length and/ or loudness) of the acoustic signal were correlated with the risks of exposure, we may predict that insects calling from exposed...