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This study aimed to investigate the mating behavior of the sandy beach-dwelling ground cricket, Dianemobius csikii (Bolívar, 1901) (Orthoptera, Grylloidea, Trigonidiidae, Nemobiinae). The calling songs of males were recorded, and the temporal structures of the songs were analyzed. Subsequently, the courtship song and mating behavior of cricket pairs were observed. The calling song consisted only of monotonous chirps, while the courtship song consisted of similar chirps and ticks consisting of a single pulse. Dianemobius csikii exhibited a relatively longer courtship duration than other cricket species. The female stayed with the male for approximately 25 min while the male emitted the courtship song. The male then changed to the trill song, which is a continuous song, just before copulation. Copulation occurred within 10–40 s of the male emitting the trill song. The courtship behavior differs from that of other well-studied cricket species, such as Gryllinae. The findings of this study provide insight into the mating behaviors of crickets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The songs of seven grasshopper species of subfamily Gomphocerinae from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Kazakhstan were studied. We analysed not only the sound, but also the stridulatory movements of the hind legs to more entirely describe the songs. In Mesasippus kozhevnikovi, Chorthippus macrocerus, and C. hammarstroemi, the legs are moved in a relatively simple pattern; four other species, Myrmeleotettix palpalis, Stenobothrus newskii, C. pullus, and Megaulacobothrus aethalinus demonstrate more complex leg movements. In six of the seven species studied, the courtship songs contain more sound elements than the calling songs. The highest number of courtship sound elements was found in M. palpalis and M. aethalinus. The different parts of a remarkably long stridulatory file in M. aethalinus are thought to participate in the production of different sound elements. The songs in S. newskii are shown for the first time. This species produces sound not only by common stridulation but also by wing beats. A relationship of S. newskii to some other species of the genus Stenobothrus, which are able to crepitate, is discussed. We also analyse the frequency spectra of the songs. A maximum energy of the song power spectra in six species studied lies in ultrasound range (higher than 20 kHz). In only M. aethalinus, the main peaks in the song power spectra lie lower than 20 kHz. The courtship behaviour in M. palpalis, C. macrocerus, and C. hammarstroemi was shown to include conspicuous visual display (movements of antennae, palps and the whole body). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scaly crickets, Mogoplistinae, form a monophyletic group of crickets and are characterised by scales covering the integument. In many species, males have modified forewings for producing highly tonal calling songs. Despite being a highly speciose and abundant group of orthopterans in tropical forests, data on their calling songs and studies on their bioacoustics remain scanty. In this study, we recorded and described the calling songs of seven sympatric scaly cricket species belonging to three genera—Cycloptiloides, Ectatoderus and Ornebius—from Singapore. We compared call structure and call parameters of syntopic species occurring together in the same locality within Singapore and found that syntopic congeners exhibit acoustic partitioning to avoid inter-specific competition for the acoustic space. We also found that calling songs can be highly varied among congeners and species from the same species groups. Finally, we also observed that syllable duration and peak frequency exhibit vastly different allometric relationships with body size. Larger scaly cricket species bear disproportionately longer syllable duration, but not differences in peak frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the male calling songs of sixteen species belonging to the Tettigoniidae family distributed in Hakkari were recorded in the field studies and bioacoustic analyses were performed. The bioacoustic analysis of two genera (Kurdia and Novadrymadusa) documented first time with present study and in total six species (Bradyporus (Callimenus) latipes, Isophya hakkarica, Kurdia uvarovi, Novadrymadusa karabagi, Psorodonotus hakkari, and Squamiana supericola) were presented first time. The bioacoustic analyses of seven species (Conocephalus (Anisoptera) fuscus, Pezodrymadusa indivisa, Polysarcus zacharovi, Tettigonia armeniaca, Tettigonia caudata, Tettigonia viridissima, and Uvarovistia satunini) were examined for the first time from Hakkari populations. In addition, in this study, the bioacoustic analyses of three species (Apholidoptera kurda, Saga hakkarica, and Uvarovistia zebra) distributed in Hakkari were re-evaluated in this study on new individuals. As a result of the findings, it has been determined that the male calling song of sixteen species belonging to the Tettigoniidae family are species-specific, have a simple calling song type, and morphological species hypotheses are also supported by bioacoustic data (male calling song). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circadian rhythms are endogenously generated and self-sustaining oscillations that occur at a 24 hours scale and are ubiquitous amonganimals.. Animals rely on their circadian clocks to anticipate cyclical external environmental oscillations to find mates and reproduce, among other activities. Hence, animals that sing to attract mates can modulate their calling activity across the circadian cycle and species can exhibit different circadian rhythms in their calling activity. Crickets are among the most studied sound-producing animals, but concerted efforts to examine their circadian rhythms in their calling activity across multiple species remain limited for Southeast Asian species. Here, we recorded the calls of eleven Southeast Asian species of Eneopterinae – known for their diverse calling songs – across the phylogeny and compared their circadian rhythms based on the number of echemes and amount of sound produced. Using standardised ex-situ recordings to produce precise data about the circadian patterns, we verified sporadic observations about their calling activity made in the field. We also found that the eneopterines exhibit highly diversified circadian rhythms in calling activity, ranging from strictly diurnal and nocturnal calling to complex calling patterns with multiple peaks across day and/or night. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of mating experience on male mating behavior are mediated by four factors: mating cost, such as resource depletion, perception of mating opportunities, self-perception of attractiveness, and female quality. For example, encountering females might increase male expectations of prospective mating opportunities, while copulation increases self-perception of attractiveness in males. To determine the relative importance of these factors, the effect of mating on the two components of reproductive effort (courtship and fighting effort) in Gryllus bimaculatus was examined. Calling activity before and after encountering females was measured, and copulation success was recorded. Subsequently, the intensity and outcome of male–male fighting behavior was recorded. Female encounter increased calling activity irrespective of copulation, thereby indicating that the perception of mating opportunities is important factor for the males. Changes in courtship effort of males were larger and fighting success was lower when they were previously paired with relatively heavier females. These results indicate that male reproductive effort is also affected by quality of previous mating partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the amplitude modulation of species-specific acoustic signals is distorted in the transmission channel, signals become difficult to recognize by the receiver. Tolerant auditory pattern recognition systems, which after having perceived the correct species-specific signal transiently broaden their acceptance of signals, would be advantageous for animals as an adaptation to the constraints of the environment. Using a well-studied cricket species, Gryllus bimaculatus, we analysed tolerance in auditory steering responses to 'Odd' chirps, mimicking a signal distorted by the transmission channel, and control 'Silent' chirps by employing a fine-scale open-loop trackball system. Odd chirps on their own did not elicit a phonotactic response. However, when inserted into a calling song pattern with attractive Normal chirps, the females' phonotactic response toward these patterns was significantly larger than to patterns with Silent chirps. Moreover, females actively steered toward Odd chirps when these were presented within a sequence of attractive chirps. Our results suggest that crickets employ a tolerant pattern recognition system that, once activated, transiently allows responses to distorted sound patterns, as long as sufficient natural chirps are present. As pattern recognition modulates how crickets process non-attractive acoustic signals, the finding is also relevant for the interpretation of two-choice behavioural experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Songs and morphology are compared between Chorthippus miramae (Vorontsovsky, 1928) that was previously named as C. porphyropterus and two other closely related species, C. brunneus (Thunberg, 1815) and C. maritimus Mistshenko, 1951. We compare them because the calling song of C. miramae was previously shown to have song elements similar to those of other two species. One morphological character, the length of stridulatory file, appeared to be the best character to distinguish between all three species. For C. maritimus and C. miramae, we present the morphological descriptions since they are absent in the literature. We also establish the synonymy C. maritimus = C. bornhalmi Harz, 1971, syn. n. = C. biguttulus eximius Mistshenko, 1951, syn. n. In the song analysis, we analyse not only the sound but also the legmovement pattern, which is very helpful to find a homology between various song elements. We show that the calling song of C. miramae usually contains two elements, one element being similar to the C. brunneus calling song, and another - to the C. maritimus calling song. Despite some similarities, the calling song elements in C. miramae have some peculiarities. The courtship song of C. miramae is similar to the C. brunneus song, whereas the rivalry songs of C. miramae comprise both the maritimus-like elements and the unique ones. C. miramae generally demonstrates a richer song repertoire than the other two species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanisation impacts biodiversity tremendously, but a few species can still tolerate the harsh conditions of urban habitats. Studies regarding the impact of urbanisation on the soundscape and acoustic behaviours of sound-producing animals tend to overlook invertebrates, including the crickets. Almost nothing is known about their acoustic community in the urban environment, especially for Southeast Asia where rapid urbanisation is widespread. Grass verges in Singapore – characterised by complex mosaics of land-use types – were sampled as a microcosmic representation of the urban environment to address these questions: (i) What is the acoustic community of crickets in the urban environment? (ii) How do co-occurring species partition their calls? (iii) How do the call properties vary with environmental conditions and individuals? The calling songs of 10 species were recorded and they generally have distinct call signatures in both the time and frequency domains. The acoustic community was dominated by Polionemobius taprobanensis and Gryllodes sigillatus. They also showed repeatabilites in their call properties with static properties being more repeatable than dynamic properties, but these call properties were not associated with environmental variables. The presence of these crickets is relevant for a biophilic city as they represent what most urban dwelling humans could frequently hear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although crickets move their front wings for sound production, the abdominal ganglia house the network of the singing central pattern generator. We compared the effects of specific lesions to the connectives of the abdominal ganglion chain on calling song activity in four different species of crickets, generating very different pulse patterns in their calling songs. In all species, singing activity was abolished after the connectives between the metathoracic ganglion complex and the first abdominal ganglion A3 were severed. The song structure was lost and males generated only single sound pulses when connectives between A3 and A4 were cut. Severing connectives between A4 and A5 had no effect in the trilling species, it led to an extension of chirps in a chirping species and to a loss of the phrase structure in two Teleogryllus species. Cutting the connectives between A5 and A6 caused no or minor changes in singing activity. In spite of the species-specific pulse patterns of calling songs, our data indicate a conserved organisation of the calling song motor pattern generating network. The generation of pulses is controlled by ganglia A3 and A4 while A4 and A5 provide the timing information for the chirp and/or phrase structure of the song. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invasive mole cricket species in the genus Scapteriscus have become significant agricultural pests and are continuing to expand their range in North America. Though largely subterranean, adults of some species, such as Scapteriscus borellii Giglio-Tos 1894, are capable of long dispersive flights and phonotaxis to male calling songs to find suitable habitats and mates. Mole crickets in the genus Scapteriscus are known to be attracted to and can be caught by audio lure traps that broadcast synthesized or recorded calling songs. We report improvements in the design and production of electronic controllers for the automation of semipermanent mole cricket trap lures as well as highly portable audio trap collection designs. Using these improved audio lure traps, we collected the first reported individuals of the pest mole cricket S. borellii in California. We describe several characteristic features of the calling song of the California population including that the pulse rate is a function of soil temperature, similar to Florida populations of S. borellii. Further, we show that other calling song characteristics (carrier frequency, intensity, and pulse rate) are significantly different between the populations.

This work presents the fi rst bioacoustical analysis of the complex calling songs of the North American desert cicada genus Cacama Distant, 1904 and treats all species known from the California fauna. Analysis of fi eld recordings found three characters that vary signifi cantly among species: syllable rate, the number of pulses per syllable, and the mean frequency during the main portion of an echeme. A bivariate plot of syllable rate and pulse number separates all California species. The results confi rm that a fourth species, C. moorei Sanborn & M. Heath, 2011 belongs to the California state fauna. Courtship songs of C. moorei and C. valvata (Uhler, 1888) are described and the role of songs in mate recognition is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to contribute to the knowledge of Arcyptera alzonai, considered an endemic Italian species, whose biology is little known and which has an uncertain taxonomic status. Some individuals were found on a small site within its historical presence area in Susa Valley (Piedmont, NW Italy). Some recordings of the song, until today unknown, were made and analyzed. From the oscillograms obtained, no significant differences emerged with the congener species Arcyptera microptera. Also according to various authors these two species are at the moment indistinguishable from a morphological point of view. Therefore, a possible synonymy among these two taxa can be assumed which, however, must be investigated and confirmed by further research based on genetic analysis.

The aim of this study was to contribute to the knowledge of Arcyptera alzonai, considered an endemic Italian species, whose biology is little known and which has an uncertain taxonomic status. Some individuals were found on a small site within its historical presence area in Susa Valley (Piedmont, NW Italy). Some recordings of the song, until today unknown, were made and analyzed. From the oscillograms obtained, no significant differences emerged with the congener species Arcyptera microptera. Also according to various authors these two species are at the moment indistinguishable from a morphological point of view. Therefore, a possible synonymy among these two taxa can be assumed which, however, must be investigated and confirmed by further research based on genetic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes two new species of the tribe Meconematini from China, Acosmetura longielata sp. nov. and Pseudocosmetura yaoluopingensis sp. nov. Data on the male song characters of Pseudocosmetura yaoluopingensis sp. nov. are also provided. The type specimens of all new species are preserved in the Museum of Hebei University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many animals produce acoustic signals to mark territories and attract mates. When different species produce acoustic signals simultaneously, the signals create a noisy environment, with potential acoustic interference between species. Theoretical studies suggest that such reproductive interference may have strong effects on species interaction. For example, the inferior resource competitor can survive if its disadvantage is counterbalanced by superiority in reproductive interference. Two field cricket species, Teleogryllus occipitalis (Audinet-Serville) (Orthoptera: Gryllidae) and Loxoblemmus equestris Saussure (Orthoptera: Gryllidae), cooccur in the same habitat. A previous study has shown that L. equestris is an inferior species to T. occipitalis in terms of resource competition. Therefore, we predicted that mate location and choice behavior of female T. occipitalis would be negatively affected by the acoustic signals of L. equestris and tested this with a series of playback experiments. The mate choice behavior of female T. occipitalis was not significantly affected by the calling song of L. equestris. Our results suggest that the acoustic interference does not explain the cooccurrence of the two species in the same habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The calling song of Tibicen esfandiarii Dlabola, 1970 is described for the first time. The calling song consists of a continuous train of syllables (3-9 ms) and short intersyllable intervals (0.4 to 1.9 ms). The song begins at a lower intensity, increasing intensity through a series of steps to the ultimate portion of the call that is produced for an extended period at this loudest intensity. The song terminates after a short pause (2 ms) that is followed by about 0.5 s of singing. The total syllable repetition frequency is 193.1±60.24 Hz (n = 48 measurements from six individuals) and the frequency of the average peak energy of calling song is 4875±59.45 Hz (n = 6 individuals) and courtship songs (n = 15 parts of call from one individual) is 4875±0 Hz. The courtship song consists of alternative phrases usually starting after a short pause (average of 70.8±4.85 ms) and syllable frequency reducing from the average of 157.0±7.1 Hz to 128.4±1.67 Hz. The duration, frequency of syllables and the average RMS amplitude in different portions of the song and in different specimens are measured and the behavior of the specimen during song production is described. We show significant differences in the frequency and temporal components of T. esfandiarii from its congeneric species, Tibicen plebejus (Scopoli, 1763), with which is shares part of its range in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predator avoidance is one of the most important fitness components because predation success is directly linked to prey death. Decision making regarding predator avoidance is influenced by many abiotic and biotic factors because of the trade-off between predator avoidance and other contextual behaviours. Attractive sexual signals may elicit responses not only from potential mates, but also from predators. Therefore, female escape behaviour will be affected by the attractiveness of male signals. I examined the effect of attractiveness of male calling songs on the components of female escape behaviour [i.e., responsiveness to artificial predatory stimuli, alternative escape tactics (jumping or forward locomotion), and locomotor distance] in the field cricket Teleogryllus occipitalis. Although song attractiveness did not affect female escape behaviour, behavioural components showed high inter-individual variation. The results showed that escape behaviour exhibited high repeatability, and the consistency affects decision-making in terms of escape behaviour in field crickets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many animals produce acoustic signals for displaying their territoriality to other males and attracting mating partners. However, the acoustic signals are often eavesdropped on by other species. If a species with higher competitive ability eavesdrops on the acoustic signals of a species with lower competitive ability, the former can deprive the latter of their suitable calling sites. Therefore, the species with higher competitive ability exhibits a positive response to the acoustic signals of those with lower competitive abilities, whereas the species with lower competitive ability exhibits a negative response to the calling songs of those with higher competitive abilities. In the present study, male responses to conspecific and heterospecific song in two field cricket species Teleogryllus occipitalis (Audinet-Serville 1839) (Gryllidae) and Loxoblemmus equestris Saussure 1877 (Gryllidae) were investigated by playback experiments. T. occipitalis has larger body size than L. equestris. Both species did not exhibit precise negative or positive responses to conspecific and heterospecific songs. The results suggest that the cricket species do not utilize heterospecific song to acquire their calling sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In acoustic species, traits such as male calling song are likely to diverge quickly between allopatric populations due to sexual selection, and divergence in parameters such as carrier frequency, chirp structure, and other important song characters can influence sexual isolation. Here we make use of two forms of Mormon crickets to examine differences in a broad suite of traits that have the potential to influence speciation via sexual isolation. Mormon crickets in "gregarious" populations aggregate into dense migratory bands, and females are the sexually competitive Fsex ( sex- role reversal). There is also a non-outbreak "solitary" form. These two forms are largely but not perfectly correlated with a significant mtDNA subdivision within the species that is thought to have arisen in allopatry. Combined information about multiple, independently evolving traits, such as morphology and structural and behavioural differences in calling song, provides greater resolution of the overall differences between these allopatric populations, and allows us to assess their stage of divergence. We test two predictions, first that the forms differ in song and second that gregarious males are more reluctant to sing than solitary males due to sex role reversal. We also tested for a difference in the relationship between the size of the forewing resonator, the mirror, and carrier frequency, as most models of sound production in crickets indicate that mirror size should predict carrier frequency. Results: Multivariate analyses showed that solitary and gregarious individuals from different populations representing the two mtDNA clades had almost non-overlapping distributions based on multiple song and morphological measurements. Carrier frequency differed between the two, and gregarious males were more reluctant to sing overall. Mirror size predicted carrier frequency; however, the relationship between mirror size and surface area varied between solitary and gregarious forms, suggesting that factors above and beyond mirror size contribute to carrier frequency. Conclusion: The two clades of Mormon crickets differ in a broad suite of independent traits that probably justify subspecies status ( the two can successfully mate so may not be reproductively isolated). However, our results emphasize the importance of carefully distinguishing the ultimate causation of differences between traits used to delineate species or subspecies boundaries.

We present an analysis of the calling songs of species Metrioptera bicolor isolated from different locations within Northeast China illustrating the intraspecies calling song divergence. Recording and analysis of the male calling songs of some acoustic characters were performed and five morphological traits of M. bicolor were examined under stereoscope microscope and scanning electron microscope. A cluster analysis was made based on the song properties and the morphology of stridulatory organs. All the song traits, except the pulse number per pulse group, differ distinctly within species collected at different localities, while the pulse number of each pulse group and all the five morphological characters were consistent across locations. The cluster analysis showed that M. bicolor collected from eight sampling sites grouped into two branches and were consistent with geographical distribution. The dialect phenomenon exists in insects and the divergence of acoustic signals occurs in a small-scale geographical region and may be an early stage of speciation. We inferred that the divergence of intraspecific acoustic signals on a small-scale may result from different habitats. This study provides evidence for insect acoustic signal divergence, speciation, and insect acoustic signal evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cicada orni Linnaeus, 1758 is an abundant and common cicada across Europe, North Africa, and western Asia including Iran. The male cicada produces a loud calling song for attraction of females from a long distance. The calling songs are known often to be species-specific and to function in part for species recognition. The present study compares variations in calling song of C. orni in Iran with those reported from other areas and also signifies the importance of calling song in species identification. C. orni were collected in Mazandaran, Iran during summer 2010. Four features were used: echeme duration, echeme period, interecheme interval, number of echeme/s and dominant frequency. Findings of present study showed some resemblance in time and frequency domains in the calling song among the populations of C. orni from Iran and those investigated in Greece, Iberian Peninsula and Turkey. The parameters of calling song showed maximal resemblance with species of Kosmas (Greece). The present results do not support C. orni from Iran as an independent subspecies. Thus, it is concluded that every feature of calling song can be effective in species recognition as is the case for several other parameters.

A novel panel of 16 microsatellite markers, obtained by pyrosequencing of enriched genomic libraries, is reported for the flightless European bushcricket Ephippiger diurnus (Dufour) (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae). Five multiplex and one simplex PCR protocols were optimized, and the polymorphism at the 16 loci was assessed in two natural populations from southern France. The mean allele number and (expected mean heterozygosity) were 8.94 (0.71) and 6.57 (0.70), respectively, in each population. Several loci were at Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium (HWD), possibly due to the incidence of null alleles. The occurrence of null alleles has been previously reported for this species, and it is a common feature of microsatellite loci in Orthoptera. Cross-amplification tests demonstrated the transferability of some of these loci to other ephippigerine species. The microsatellite loci reported here substantially increase the number of available loci for this species and will afford an accurate picture of E. diurnus phylogeography, the genetic structure of its populations, and an improved understanding of the evolution of male song and other sexually-selected traits in this highly variable species.

To address the hypothesis that male acoustic sexual advertisement signals, in addition to chemical signals, might be indicators of aggressiveness, we examined the relationship between levels of aggression/dominance status and acoustic sexual advertisement signals in the field cricket Gryllus integer. Males were paired in aggression trials and recorded the night before and night after the trial. This allowed us to test whether aggression is inherently linked to song phenotypes, or whether aggressive interactions cause males to alter their songs. We found that dominant (winning) males signaled with higher energy, amplitude, and power the night after winning an aggressive encounter, but we could not detect any differences before the encounter. Time spent calling and the number of calling bouts were apparently unrelated to aggression, whereas winning males increased their bout lengths after winning, and losing males decreased their bout lengths after losing.