Abstract
Acoustic communication is an essential part of the mate-finding system of many insects, e.g., ensiferan Orthoptera. In this group, the signals consist typically of relatively simple repetitive sound patterns produced for long times and used by the females for a phonotactic approach to the singing males. However, the situation can be different in duetting species where the females respond acoustically to the male. Here, we present data of the songs of 14 East African species of the duetting genus Eurycorypha. These songs are extremely diverse differing in many parameters and containing up to three different syllable types grouped into various echemes. In the duets between males and females, studied in 7 species, the females respond with latency times between 100 and 400 ms and are in some species able to react to different trigger syllables or also to the end of a series of syllables. The males often modify their songs after having heard a female response. Some of these modifications are also produced spontaneously. Similar elements are even found as integral part of the calling song in some species. We interpret these modifications aimed to protect a duet against eavesdropping rivals and thus as part of intrasexual selection. The evolution of the complicated song patterns may thus be driven by the interaction between female choice s.l. and male-male competition.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brunner von Wattenwyl, C. (1891). Additamenta zur Monographie der Phaneropteriden. Verhandlungen der kaiserlich königlichen zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft Wien, 41, 1–196.
Buzzetti, F. M., Barrientos-Lozano, L., & Rocha-Sáánchez, A. Y. (2010). Description and bioacoustics of a new species of the new genus Pterodichopetala from Mexico (lnsecta: Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae). Journal of Orthoptera Research, 19(2), 289–292. https://doi.org/10.1665/034.019.0216.
Chopard, L. (1936). Contributions à l’ étude de la faune du Mozambique. Voyage de M. P. Lesne (1928—1929). 19: Orthoptères Ensifères. Memórias e estudos do Museu zoológico da Universidade de Coimbra. Serie 1, Zoologia sistematica, 85 (1935), 1–32.
Chopard, L. (1938). Orthoptera. 1. Dictyoptera, Phasmodea, Ensifera. In: Mission Scientifique de’l Omo, Tome IV, Fasc. 33. Mémoires du Muséum National d’ Histoire Naturelle, Nouvelle série 8, 89–134.
Cigliano, M. M., Braun, H., Eades C., & Otte, D. (2020). Orthoptera species file. Version 5.0/5.0. [27/03/2020]. <http://Orthoptera.SpeciesFile.org>.
Darwin, C. (1871) The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray.
Dobler, S., Heller, K.-G., & von Helversen, O. (1994). Song pattern recognition and an auditory time window in female bushcricket Ancistrura nigrovittata (Orthoptera, Phaneropteridae). Journal of Comparative Physiology. A, 175, 67–74.
Gerhardt, H. C., & Huber, F. (2002). Acoustic communication in insects and anurans—common problems and diverse solutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hedwig, B. (Ed.) (2014a). Insect hearing and acoustic communication. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40462-7.
Hedwig, B. (2014b). Towards an understanding of the neural basis of acoustic communication in crickets. In B. Hedwig (Ed.), Insect hearing and acoustic communication (pp. 123–141). Berlin: Springer-Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40462-7_8.
Heller, K.-G. (2006). Song evolution and speciation in bush-crickets (Orthoptera, Tettigonioidea). In S. Drosopoulos & M. Claridge (Eds.), Insect sounds and communication: physiology, behaviour, ecology and evolution (pp 137–163). Boca Raton: CRC Press at Taylor & Francis Group.
Heller, K.-G. (2016). Bioacoustics. In: M. Lemonnier-Darcemont, C. Darcemont, K.-G. Heller, A.M. Dutrillaux & B. Dutrillaux (Eds.), Saginae of Europa. Callian, France: Edition GEEM.
Heller, K.-G. (2019). Provisional checklist of the Tettigonioidea (Insecta: Orthoptera) from São Tomé & Príncipe with taxonomic remarks, bioacoustical data and the description of new taxa. Zootaxa, 4563(1), 41–66.
Heller, K.-G., & Hemp, C. (2014). Fiddler on the tree - a bush-cricket species with unusual stridulatory organs and song. PLoS One, 9(3), e92366. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0092366.
Heller, K.-G., Helversen, O. V., & Sergejeva, M. (1997). Indiscriminate response behavior in a female bushcricket: sex role reversal in selectivity of acoustic mate recognition? Naturwissenschaften, 84, 252–255.
Heller, K.-G., Hemp, C., Liu, C.-X., & Volleth, M. (2014). Taxonomic, bioacoustic and faunistic data on a collection of Tettigonioidea from Eastern Congo (Insecta: Orthoptera). Zootaxa, 3785(3), 343–376.
Heller, K.-G., Hemp, C., Ingrisch, S., & Liu, C.-X. (2015). Acoustic communication in Phaneropterinae (Tettigonioidea)—a global review with some new data. Journal of Orthoptera Research, 24, 7–18.
Heller, K.-G., Ingrisch, S., Liu, C.-X., Shi, F.-M., Hemp, C., Warchalowska-Sliwa, E., & Rentz, D. C. F. (2017a). Complex songs and cryptic ethospecies: the case of the Ducetia japonica group (Orthoptera: Tettigonioidea: Phaneropteridae: Phaneropterinae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 181, 286–307.
Heller, K.-G., Ingrisch, S., Warchalowska-Sliwa, E., & Liu, C.-X. (2017b). The genus Ectadia (Orthoptera: Phaneropteridae: Phaneropterinae) in East Asia: description of a new species, comparison of its complex song and duetting behavior with that of E. fulva and notes on the biology of E. fulva. Journal of Orthoptera Research, 26(1), 39–51. https://doi.org/10.3897/jor.26.14548.
Heller, K.-G., Korsunovskaya, K., Massa, B., & Iorgu, I. S. (2018). High-speed duetting—latency times of the female acoustic response within the bush-cricket genera Leptophyes and Andreiniimon (Orthoptera, Phaneropteridae). Zookeys, 750, 45–58.
Heller K.-G., Volleth, M., Vedenina ,V., Maryańska-Nadachowska, A. & Warchałowska-Śliwa E. (2020). A perfect duet? The acoustic behaviour of Anaulacomera almadaenis n. sp. (Orthoptera, Tettigonioidea, Phaneropterinae), a species with an unusual chromosome complement, discovered in the footsteps of the explorers Spix and Martius in Brazil. Spixiana (in press).
Helversen, D. V., Schul, J., & Kleindienst, H.-U. (2001). Male recognition mechanism for female responses implies a dilemma for their localisation in a phaneropterine bushcricket. Journal of Comparative Physiology. A, 186, 1153–1158.
Helversen, O. V., Helversen, D. V., Rohrseitz, K., Koopmann, I., Stumpner, A., & Heller, K.-G. (2015). Signals and sex-specific active space in a duetting insect (Orthoptera: Phaneropteridae: Poecilimon affinis). Journal of Orthoptera Research, 24, 19–28.
Hemp, C. (2017). New Eurycorypha species (Orthoptera: Tettigonoidea: Phaneropteridae; Phaneropterinae) from East Africa. Zootaxa, 4358(3), 471–493. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4358.3.5.
Hemp C. (2020). The bushcrickets, wetas and raspy crickets of Tanzania and Kenya. (in prep).
Hemp, C., Heller, K.-G., Kehl, S., Warchalowska-Sliwa, E., Wägele, J. W., & Hemp, A. (2010). The Phlesirtes complex (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Conocephalinae, Conocephalini) reviewed: integrating morphological, molecular, chromosomal, and bioacoustical data. Systematic Entomology, 35, 554–580.
Hemp, C., Heller, K.-G., Warchalowska-Sliwa, E., Grzywacz, B., & Hemp, A. (2013). Biogeography, ecology, acoustics and chromosomes of East African Eurycorypha Stål species (Orthoptera, Phaneropterinae) with the description of new species. Organisms, Diversity and Evolution, 13, 373–395.
Hemp, C., Heller, K.-G., Warchalowska-Sliwa, E., Grzywacz, B., & Hemp, A. (2015). Ecology, acoustics and chromosomes of the East African genus Afroanthracites Hemp & Ingrisch (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Conocephalinae, Agraeciini) with the description of new species. Organisms, Diversity and Evolution, 15(2), 351–368.
Hemp, C., Heller, K.-G., Warchalowska-Sliwa, E., Grzywacz, B., & Hemp, A. (2017). Review of the East African species of the phaneropterine genus Parapyrrhicia Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1891 (Insecta: Orthoptera): secret communication of a forest-bound taxon. Organisms, Diversity and Evolution, 17, 231–250.
Hemp, C., Heller, K.-G., Warchalowska-Sliwa, E., Grzywacz, B., & Hemp, A. (2018). New genera and new species of Acrometopini (Orthoptera: Tettigonioidea Phaneropterinae) from East Africa and a review of all known stridulatory organs, songs and karyotypes of the tribe. Insect Systematics & Evolution, 49, 241–298. https://doi.org/10.1163/1876312X-00002170.
Hennig, M., Heller, K.-G., & Clemens, J. (2014). Time and timing in the acoustic recognition system of crickets. Frontiers in Physiology, 5, 286.
Massa, B. (2013). Diversity of leaf katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae) of Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, Central African Republic, with selected records from other African countries. Journal of Orthoptera Research, 22(2), 125–152.
Massa, B. (2016). On some interesting African katydids (Orthoptera Tettigoniidae). Entomologia. https://doi.org/10.4081/entomologia.2016.303.
Massa, B. (2017). New data and taxa for Orthoptera Tettigoniidae and Acrididae from tropical Africa. Annales de la Société entomologique de France (N.S.), 53(4), 236–255. https://doi.org/10.1080/00379271.2017.1334586.
Maynard Smith, J. (1987). Sexual selection—a classification of models. In J. W. Bradbury & M B. Andersson (Eds.), Sexual selection: testing the alternatives (pp. 9–20). Chichester: Wiley.
Montealegre-Z, F. (2009). Scale effects and constraints for sound production in katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae): correlated evolution between morphology and signal parameters. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 22, 355–366.
Mugleston, J. D., Naegle, M., Song, H., & Whiting, M. F. (2018). A comprehensive phylogeny of Tettigoniidae (Orthoptera: Ensifera) reveals extensive ecomorph convergence and widespread taxonomic incongruence. Insect Systematics and Diversity, 2(4), 1–27.
Naskrecki, P., & Guta, R. (2019). Katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) of Gorongosa National Park and Central Mozambique. Zootaxa, 4682(1), 1–119. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4682.1.1.
Orci, K. M. (2007). Female preferences for male song characters in the bush-cricket Isophya camptoxypha (Orthoptera, Tettigonioidea). Journal of Insect Behavior, 20, 503–513.
Otte, D. (1992). Evolution of cricket songs. Journal of Orthoptera Research, 1, 25–49.
Pollack, G. S., Mason, A. C., Popper, A. N., & Fay, R. R. (Eds.). (2016). Insect hearing, Springer handbook of auditory research (Vol. 55). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28890-1.
Ragge, D., & Reynolds, W. J. (1998). Songs of the grasshoppers and crickets of Western Europe. Colchester, Essex: Harley Books.
Rehn, J. A. G., & Hebard, M. (1905). A contribution to the knowledge of the Orthoptera of south and Central Florida. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 57, 29–55.
Scudder, S. H. (1877). New forms of saltatorial Orthoptera from the southern United States. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, 19, 35–41.
Scudder, S. H. (1898). The orthopteran group Scudderiae. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 33, 271–291.
Sjöstedt, Y. (1910). 17. Orthoptera. 6. Locustodea. 3. In Sjöstedt Y. (Ed.), Abteilung 15–22. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der schwedischen zoologischen Expedition nach dem Kilimandjaro, dem Meru and den umgebenden Masaisteppen deutsch–Ostafrikas,1905–1906 unter Leitung von Prof. Dr. Yngve Sjöstedt (pp. 125–148). Stockholm.
Spooner, J. D. (1964). Comparative study of the acoustical behavior of Phaneropterinae (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae). Ph.D. dissertation, University of Florida, Gainesville. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/35540#/summary
Stål, C. (1857). Orthoptera cursoria och Locustina fran Cafferlandet. Öfversigt Kongliga Vetenskaps–akademiens Förhandlingar, Stockholm, 13, 165–170 [1856].
Tauber, E., & Pener, M. P. (2000). Song recognition in female bushcrickets Phaneroptera nana. Journal of Experimental Biology, 203, 597–603.
Villarreal, S. M., & Gilbert, C. (2013). Female acoustic reply to variation in the male call in a duetting katydid, Scudderia pistillata. Behaviour, 150, 525–546.
Villarreal, S. M., & Gilbert, C. (2014). Male Scudderia pistillata katydids defend their acoustic duet against eavesdroppers. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 68, 1669–1675. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1775-y.
Walker, T. J. (2004). The uhleri group of the genus Amblycorypha (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae): extraordinarily complex songs and new species. Journal of Orthoptera Research, 13, 169–183. https://doi.org/10.1665/1082-6467(2004)013[0169:TUGOTG]2.0.CO;2.
Walker, T. J., & Dew, D. (1972). Wing movement of calling katydids: Fiddling finesse. Science, 178, 174–176.
Walker, T. J., Forrest, T. G., & Spooner, J. D. (2003). The rotundifolia complex of the genus Amblycorypha (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae): songs reveal new species. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 96, 433–447.
Zhantiev, R. D. & Korsunovskaya, O. S. (1986). Sound communication in bushcrickets (Tettigoniidae, Phaneropterinae) of the European part of USSR. Zoologischeskii Zhurnal, 65, 1151–1163 [in Russian with English summary].
Zhantiev, R. D., & Korsunovskaya, O. (2005). Acoustic signals of the bushcrickets of tribe Barbitistini (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae) from eastern Europe and Caucasus. I. Poecilimon Fisch., Isoimon B.-Bienko. Russian Entomological Journal, 14(2), 101–111.
Acknowledgments
We thank Holger Braun and an anonymous referee for helpful comments on the manuscript.
Additional material
For all species studied, exemplary sound files of male calling songs and of duets where available were deposited at Orthoptera Species File (http://Orthoptera.SpeciesFile.org).
Availability of data and material
Specimens in Collectio Hemp, sound files in Collectio Heller (representative examples will be deposited at Orthoptera Species File http://Orthoptera.SpeciesFile.org).
Code availability
n.a.
Funding
We acknowledge support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and thank the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology and the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute for permitting this research (no. 2016-102-ER-96-44). We thank the National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi for continuous support and collaboration. Part of the research received support from the Synthesys Project http://www.synthesys.info/, which is financed by the European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP6 “Structuring the European Research Area Programme” and enabled C.H. to visit various entomological collections in Europe.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethics approval
n.a.
Consent to participate
n.a.
Consent for publication
n.a.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Heller, KG., Hemp, C. Hyperdiverse songs, duetting, and the roles of intra- and intersexual selection in the acoustic communication of the genus Eurycorypha (Orthoptera: Tettigonioidea, Phaneropterinae). Org Divers Evol 20, 597–617 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-020-00452-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-020-00452-1