Lophaspis scabricula
L. scabricula is a larger dark green insect with similar mor phological features. It chorused actively each night in the im mediate vicinity of the La Selva station, high in the forest canopy adjacent to the river bank.
If the taped L. hebardi chirp is played back at a speed reduced by a factor of 4, the listener is able to resolve all 8 major pulse trains. The effect is remarkably like a song of southern P. camellifolia: there are 2, rapidly repeated, 'kate-ee-she-did' signals. Thus an AM pattern with a strong similarity to that of P. camellifolia is nested within the chirp of L. hebardi, though occuring at a much greater pulse train repetition rate.
The chirp (about 400 ms in duration) of L. scabricula seems virtually to nest this same AM pattern within itself! Each chirp is just barely resolved by the human ear into 5 or 6 very rapidly delivered lisps ('kate-ee-she-did-she'). Each lisp is composed of 6 pulse trains. Fig. 3 shows one complete lisp, preceded and followed by parts of two others from a single chirp. The 6 pulse trains show a close resemblance in amplitude envelope and temporal patterning to the final 6 pulse trains in the song of L. hebardi. Slowed by a factor of 8, the last 4 (high-amplitude trains) of the 6 pulse trains can be rendered 'kate-ee-she-did'.[1]
References
- . Song Structure and Description of Some Costa Rican Katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae). Transactions of the American Entomological Society. 1982;108(1/2):287-314. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25078301.