Page 75 - One Million Things: Animal Life - The Incredible Visual Guide
P. 75
2 FIREFLY 3 RING-TAILED LEMUR 4 HONEYBEE 6 ANT
These night-flying beetles use Relatives of monkeys, lemurs When foraging worker honeybees When ants from the same colony
light to communicate with each depend heavily on their sense of return to the hive, they perform meet they smell each other using
other. An organ in the firefly’s smell for communication. Male “dances” to tell other workers the their antennae. In this way, they
abdomen produces flashes of ring-tailed lemurs use a scent gland direction and distance of good can detect whether or not they
light that it uses to attract mates. in their wrist to mark their territory. sources of nectar and pollen. The belong to the same group, and if
Some female fireflies imitate the They also have stink fights against other bees use their antennae to one has discovered a good food
light flashes of other species to rivals—rubbing their tails against detect the smell of nectar and to source that others can exploit.
lure male fireflies, which they their scent glands and waving track the movements of the newly Such communication allows ants
then eat. them in the air as “smelly flags.” returned worker through touch. to function as complex societies.
5 GANNET 7 TREE FROG
Many male and female birds use Communicating by sound can
body language during courtship be risky, because it may attract
and, if they stay together for a predators. Yet many male frogs,
5
long time, to reinforce the bond including tree frogs, make a loud,
between them. Gannets perform croaky call to attract females or
special greeting ceremonies, deter rivals. Sounds are produced
stretching their necks and beaks by the vocal cords and amplified
skyward and gently tapping or when air is forced into the
rubbing their beaks together. bulging vocal sac.
6
8
7
Although they live in packs, wolves often
8 WOLF
get separated when they go hunting. To
maintain contact and identify themselves,
they howl. Howling sounds travel over long
distances and bring the pack back together.
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