Frequency signatures: Termite to Tobacco Grasshopper
Each card gives a species’ behavioural archetype, its frequency — how often it commits effort and how long each commitment lasts — and a waveform tracing that rhythm.
Frequency signatures
Each waveform traces one species’ working rhythm — where it spends effort, and where it waits. 2,327 species, A–Z; showing 2,089–2,112.
Termite
A Mound That Breathes Itself
Building a porous chimney and surface channels • Letting the sun heat one side and cool the other • Driving air through the nest with no muscular effort at all
Since the cycle turns over daily, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Texas Horned Lizard
Armored Inflation Display
Blended • Still • Armored
Because the animal’s whole system is built around long periods of inexpensive, passive warning backed by a short, intense deterrent burst, it operates as a bimodal low-plus-high frequency system.
Texas Tortoise
A Scrape Under a Bush
Pushing a shallow depression under dense thorn scrub • Using vegetation rather than depth for shelter • Depending on that scrub for shade, humidity and concealment
Since the cycle runs across years, it operates as a low-frequency system.
Texas Unicorn Mantis
A Horned Silhouette Waiting on a Stem
Waiting • Plant-shaped • Still
That makes it a bimodal system: long stationary waiting and a very fast strike.
Thick-billed Murre
Wings That Row Deep for Arctic Cod
Diving • Wing-propelled • Commuting
That makes it a bimodal system: deep wing-propelled foraging and ledge-bound incubation.
Thorny Devil
Damp Sand Pressed to the Belly
Walking slowly • Eating ants • Filling the skin channels
Small repeated gains throughout make this a low-frequency system.
Thorny Oyster
Epibiont-Gardened Spine Cover
Cemented to rock • Growing spines outward • Letting sponges cover them
Because the filtering and growing proceed at one unvarying slow rate, it operates as a low-frequency system.
Thorny Stick Insect
Thorned Hind Legs That Close Like Pliers
Sheltering • Night-feeding • Thorned
That makes it a bimodal system: sheltered, slow nocturnal life and a sudden defensive clamp.
Threadfin Acara
Excavated Burrow Gateway
Focused • Defended • Gateway-led
Because their biology centers on a defended entrance with regular, coordinated tending rather than extreme stillness or explosive bursts, Threadfin Acaras operate as a mid-frequency, gateway-led system.
Three-spined Stickleback
Kidney-Glued Nest Building
Building • Fanning • Breeding season
Because building and fanning run as a fast steady cycle, it is a mid-frequency system.
Three-spot Gourami
Pelvic Fins Become Feelers
Trailing two long thread-like pelvic rays ahead and beside the body • Touching surfaces and objects it cannot see • Building a bubble nest at the surface and guarding it
Since the filaments move constantly, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Three-toed Sloth
The Minimum-Burn Engine
Minimal-burn • Slow • Efficient
This is a strongly low-frequency strategy: minimal burn, low variation and extreme economy of motion.
Thresher Shark
Overhead Tail-Whip Stun
Herding • Circling • Sustained
Because a sustained herding phase exists to enable one extreme movement, this is a bimodal system.
Tibetan Fox
Waiting Behind a Digging Bear
Narrow • Paired • Following
That makes it a low-frequency system: patient, narrow and dependent on one prey species entirely.
Tick
Questing Contact Latch
Waiting • Anchored • Opportunistic
This makes ticks a strongly low-frequency system: they commit almost all structure to patient, low-expenditure waiting tuned to recurring host traffic, then exploit contact when it arrives rather than generating it.
Tiger Barb
Aggression Diluted by Numbers
Maintaining a constant order of chasing and nipping within the group • Spreading that aggression across many individuals when the shoal is large • Concentrating it destructively on one or two when it is small
Since interactions recur every few seconds, it operates as a high-frequency system.
Tiger Moth
Poison Taken From Fig Latex
Feeding as a larva on fig leaves that bleed latex when cut • Tolerating and storing the compounds in that latex • Advertising the result with orange, black and white warning colours as an adult
Since the cycle is annual, it operates as a low-frequency system.
Tiger Salamander
Pond-Gated Development Switch
Buried • Cool • Waiting
Because the surroundings select which state runs, rather than the animal cycling through a fixed sequence, this is an adaptive system swinging between a low-frequency underground hold and a mid-frequency aquatic phase.
Tiger Shark
A Notched Tooth That Saws
Cruising • Testing • Taking
That makes it a mid-frequency system: continuous unhurried patrol in which the range of usable food, not the hunting, is what does the work.
Tiger Wolf Spider
Tremor-Cued Night Lunge
Held still • Legs on the ground • Eyes open to the dark
Because a long cheap listening state exists in order to fund one very short and very expensive movement, this is a bimodal system.
Timneh Parrot
Dawn Dispersal From a Shared Roost
Flocking • Clambering • Seed-cracking
That makes it a bimodal system: daytime canopy foraging and a noisy communal roost.
Titicaca Water Frog
Bobbing to Refresh Skin Flow
Submerged • Folded • Bobbing
Because everything runs at a very low rate, it is a low-frequency system.
Toadstool Leather Coral
Peeling Off Its Own Surface
Withdrawing the polyps and developing a waxy film across the whole surface of the cap • Holding that state for days while algae and settling larvae accumulate on the film • Sloughing the entire layer off and reopening, leaving a clean surface beneath
Because the cycle runs over weeks, it operates as a low-frequency system.
Tobacco Grasshopper
A Head Drawn Out
Resting head-up along a grass blade or stem • Carrying a long conical head and slanted face that continues the line of the stem • Moving slowly and turning to keep the narrow profile toward an observer
Since the cycle runs annually, it operates as a low-frequency system.