Calling display and mating behaviour of Copiphora rhinoceros Pictet (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae)

Substrate-transmitted signals, known from scattered accounts to occur in several species of acoustic Orthoptera, are brought together and briefly reviewed. Males of a neotropical katydid, Copiphora rhinoceros, were found to alternate stereotyped bouts of body vibration (tremulation) with an 8.7-kHz air-borne song. This calling display is remarkable in combining vegetation-conducted transverse waves with stridulation. A complete acoustic analysis accompanies detailed descriptions of three field matings. Females responded to the male's display silently but with similar body shaking. Copulation lasted almost 4 h, and courtship was prolonged by repeated male withdrawals. The male's coyness probably reflects a costly nutritional investment in a single mating: his spermatophore includes a huge bilobed spermatophylax, consumed by the female after copulation.