Sound production mechanisms

Illustration in Journal of Experimental Biology

Sound production mechanisms are species-specific

Since teleost fish do not have organs dedicated solely to sound production, they have evolved a great variety of mechanisms. As part of a postdoctoral fellowship from the Fyssen Foundation, I conducted a study in the French grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum) in the laboratory of Functional and Evolutionary Morphology at the University of Liège. This study first aimed to describe the acoustic characteristics of sounds and then to establish their production mechanism using X-ray cinematography. The signals consisted of stridulations that could be produced alone or in sets of 2-4 sounds. The mechanism of sound production involves the pharyngeal jaws and is the same as the one already described for food intake, suggesting that the mechanism of sound production in Haemulidae is an exaptation of the mechanism of food intake. This same hypothesis has already been suggested concerning the method of sound production in the clownfish Amphiprion clarkii (snapping of jaws initially encountered during bites).

Example of triggerfishes

More recently, I participated in a study on the mechanisms of sound production in the Balistidae. During this study we showed for the first time that the sounds produced by the Picasso triggerfish Rhinecanthus aculeatus resulted from alternating movements of the right and left pectoral fins, which pushed a system of three modified scales, the scutes, against the wall of the bladder to produce series of pulses produced in pairs. By participating in the scientific expedition Gombessa IV, organized by Laurent Ballesta in the Tuamotus archipelago in French Polynesia, we studied the sound production of two other species of balistae of French Polynesia: Balistapus undulatus and Rhinecanthus rectangulus (producing similar sounds). The same morphological characters were observed, supporting the hypothesis that these three species use the same mechanism of sound production. We can reasonably support the hypothesis that this mechanism may be a synapomorphy of Balistidae.

Selection of articles

Millot M, Bertucci F, Lecchini D, Smeets S, René-Trouillefou M, Parmentier E. 2021. Characteristics of sound production and associated mechanisms in the tomtate grunt, Haemulon aurolineatum (Cuvier, 1830) in Caribbean reefs. Belgian Journal of Zoology, in press.
Bertucci F, Parmentier E, Hillion A, Cordonnier S, Lecchini D & René-Trouillefou M. 2021. First highlight of sound production in the glassy sweeper Pempheris schomburgkii (Pempheridae). Marine Biology, in press.
Parmentier E, Solagna L, Bertucci F, Fine ML, Nakae M, Compère P, Smeets S, Raick X & Lecchini D. 2019. Simultaneous production of two kinds of sounds in relation with sonic mechanism in the boxfish Ostracion meleagris and O. cubicus. Scientific Reports, 9: 4962.
Raick X, Lecchini D, Kéver L, Colleye O, Bertucci F & Parmentier E. 2018. Sound production mechanism in triggerfish (Balistidae): a synapomorphy. J. Exp. Biol., 221:168948. doi: 10.1242/jeb.168948.
Parmentier E, Raick X, Lecchini D, Boyle K, Van Wassenbergh S, Bertucci F & Kever L. 2017. Unusual sound production mechanism in the triggerfish Rhinecanthus aculeatus (Balistidae). J. Exp. Biol., 220: 186-193.
Bertucci F, Ruppé L, Van Wassenbergh S, Compère P & Parmentier E. 2014. New insights into the role of the pharyngeal jaw apparatus in the sound producing mechanism of Haemulon flavolineatum (Haemulidae). J. Exp. Biol., 217, 3862-3869.

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