Explain Sound production - Ethological Approach in Taxonomy

The most used, ethological feature in identification is the sound produced by various species of animals. This is as it has been observed that the sound patterns of the various animal voices and their mating calls, recorded on the spectrograms or sonograms are unique for each species. The uniqueness of the mating calls plays an important role in speciation or isolation mechanism. This is due Lo the fact that females of a particular animal species ate only attracted to and respond to the mating

Figure: Sound spectrograms of three species of, birds (After 'Thielcke, 1964).

or breeding call of their own male species, thus avoiding breeding with other species.  Due to this the spectrograms of mating calls in birds has helped greatly in identifying closely related species.

For recording insect sounds a similar device called recording oscilloscope is usually employed. Such recordings have helped greatly in identifying sibling species of the Gryllus (field cricket) complex. Sound patterns have also been used in other animals like other insects, amphibians, mammals etc.

Figure: Sound spectrograms or sonograms of three species nf Gryllus (ficld cricket)