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The invasive alien stink bug Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), native to eastern‐southern Africa and central‐southern Asia, poses significant economic threats to agroecosystems due to its polyphagous diet with a preference for brassicaceous crops. Current control methods using broad‐spectrum insecticides are expensive and often result in significant negative ecological impacts, as well as posing a health risk to consumers. This study provides a detailed description of the mating behavior of B. hilaris, with the aim to ascertain whether substrate‐borne vibrations have a role in premating phases. Such knowledge may contribute to the development of alternative biorational control techniques employing vibrational strategies. Virgin adults were tested individually or in pairs on different substrates, that is, a loudspeaker membrane and a bean plant. Vibrations emitted by males and females were recorded using a laser Doppler vibrometer, and the following spectral and temporal parameters were analyzed: fundamental frequency, emission time, repetition time, and signal modulation. Three distinct types of vibration emitted by males and females were identified: a male vibrotype (MV‐1), a female vibrotype (FV), and a copula signal exclusively emitted by males (MS‐2). MV‐1 and FV were emitted prior to genitalia contact, whereas MS‐2 was emitted within the mounting and engagement phases. Statistical analysis revealed significant transitions in behavioral phases for couples that achieved mating. By analyzing the walking behavior, there was an inverse relationship between motility and signal emission when comparing the two sexes, which suggests that males might engage in a form of searching behavior. These findings provide insight into the crucial role of vibrational communication to achieve mating in B. hilaris. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication with substrate-borne vibrational signals is common in the family Pentatomidae, although this aspect of biology of the invasive pest Halyomorpha halys Stål remains unexplored so far. In the present study, the behaviour of single animals and pairs is observed on a bean plant and a loudspeaker membrane at the same time as recording substrate vibrations with a laser vibrometer, with the aim of adding to the existing description of mating behaviour. The male H. halys emit long, narrow-band vibrational signals spontaneously to which the nearby females reply with their own vibrational signals, triggering male searching. During this phase, the insects emit two (in females) or three song types (in males) in various combinations, until they come into physical contact, after which the final male song type, characterized by tremulation, is the only kind of vibratory emission. Females never start singing spontaneously and the mating sequence does not proceed if either partner is silent. Male signals do not attract males or females and so vibrations are unlikely to play a role in maintaining the aggregations that are characteristic of this species, whereas female signals show promise for developing behavioural manipulation methods against this invasive pest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asopinae (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) are a subfamily of stinkbugs with predaceous feeding habits and poorly understood communication systems. In this study we recorded vibratory signals emitted by Picromerus bidens L. on a non-resonant substrate and investigated their frequency characteristics. Males and females produced signals by vibration of the abdomen and tremulation. The female and male songs produced by abdominal vibrations showed gender-specific time structure. There were no differences in the temporal patterns of male or female tremulatory signals. The signals produced by abdominal vibrations were emitted below 600 Hz whereas tremulatory signals had frequency ranges extending up to 4 kHz. Spectra of male vibratory signals produced by abdominal vibrations contained different peaks, each of which may be dominant within the same song sequence. Males alternated with each other during production of rivalry signals, using different dominant frequency levels. We show that the vibratory song repertoire of P. bidens is broader than those of other predatory stinkbugs that have been investigated. The emission of vibrational signals with different dominant frequencies but the same production mechanism has not yet been described in heteropteran insects, and may facilitate location of individual sources of vibration within a group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of vibratory disturbance on sexual behaviour and substrate-borne sound communication of the southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula L. was studied. Disturbance signals do not change the time N. viridula males need to locate the source of vibratory signals, but decrease the number of males responding with the calling and courtship song to calling females. Female N. viridula proceed calling during stimulation with disturbance signals but some of them change the song rhythm by skipping one or more signal intervals or emitting the repelling signals. The number of females which change the dominant frequency of the calling song decreases proportionally with increasing differences between the dominant frequency of the disturbance signals and the emitted female calling song. Variation of the song dominant frequency probably serves females to avoid interference by increasing the signal to noise ratio. Signal duration and repetition rate do not change significantly when the female is stimulated with the disturbance signals. This indicates that frequency shift by calling females is the main strategy for reducing interference by competitive signalers in N. viridula vibrational communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]