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Abstract

An investment in communication is necessary for any species engaging in consistent social interactions. The family Membracidae shows a wide array of social behaviors including parentoffspring interactions, aggregated groups, and mutualistic interactions with ant species; this makes them an ideal group to evaluate the relationship between degree of sociality and the relative investment in communication. It was predicted that species demonstrating social behaviors (in the form of maternal care and ant mutualisms) would have greater densities of sensory cells on the exterior of the body, focusing on the eye and pronotum. This study investigated the sensory cell densities of twenty-nine species of Membracid treehoppers from many tribes representing the array of social behaviors using a Quanta E-SEM. Results showed no significant difference between species demonstrating maternal care and those without maternal care in regard to investment in communication. However, there was a significant difference between the investment in communication of species participating in ant mutualisms and those that do not—namely, species participating in ant mutualisms have a higher investment in communication. This suggested that the presence of ant mutualisms (or lack thereof) may play a role in the evolutionary development of investments in communication. More research is needed to support this claim, including phylogenetic analyses, though this was a promising step in understanding the nature of the relationship between sociality and investment in communication within this family of insects.