Elias Lab

Substrate borne signalling

Spider SongAnimals use a variety of senses to navigate the world. While humans are adept at sensing the world through visual, auditory, and olfactory (smell) information, some animals use senses that are inpercitible to human observers. The vast majority of life on the planet uses vibrations transmitted through solid objects (substrate borne vibration) to communicate and up until recently, this crucial aspect of animal biology was completely unknown. Using technologies such as laser vibrometry, the Elias lab strives to understand different aspects of substrate-borne signaling in a variety of animal systems.

 

A major focus of our lab is substrate-borne communication. How do animals produce substrate borne signals? How do these signals propagate through the enviroments and how are they detected? What is the diversity of substrate-borne signaling in animals? By exploring these and other questions in specific systems and comparatively across several groups our lab seeks to understand the function and evolution of substrate-borne signaling.

H. formosos

Wolf Spider

More spider song and dances!

Related Publications