Recordings

Defensive stridulation of female Ancylecha fenestrata

0:01 · Edward Baker

Specimens

Ancylecha fenestrata NMS Z 2017.104.1

Literature

Scherberich, Jan; Hummel, Jennifer; Schöneich, Stefan; Nowotny, Manuela (2016). Auditory fovea in the ear of a duetting katydid shows male-specific adaptation to the female call. Current Biology, 26(23): R1222 - R1223.

Lakes-Harlan, Reinhard; Scherberich, Jan (2015). Position-dependent hearing in three species of bushcrickets (Tettigoniidae, Orthoptera). Royal Society Open Science, 2(6): 140473.

Greven, Hartmut; Braatz, Sabrina; Schulten, Dieter (2013). Comments on the Malaysian Katydid Ancylecha fenestrata (Fabricius, 1793) (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae). Entomologie heute, 25: 57-75.

Behaviour

Males and females produce sounds, when held in the hand. Our very preliminary sonagrams show that these sounds last up to approx. 1 s and are interrupted by breaks of various length. Sounds of males consist of rather regular syllables, each of which contains two elements. Number of syllables may vary (Fig. 3 A). In females the sounds are noisier and syllables are less regular over time (Fig. 3 B). Sounds are broadband reaching < 500 Hz to about 4.5 kHz in the male (Fig. 3 A) and < 500 Hz to approx. 4.0 kHz in the female (Fig. 3 B). The stridulatory apparatus is located at the bases of the overlapping tegmina (Fig. 4 A). Sounds are produced by rubbing a file of teeth ( pars stridens) on a scraper ( plectrum). These elements differ considerably in males and females. In males the pars stridens – clearly visible already at low magni fi cation (Fig. 4 B) – is a modi fi ed vein on the underside of the left tegmen base. Teeth of the fi le look like small lamellae, are very similar to each other, but become smaller towards the ends of the file (Fig. 4 D, E). The highly sclerotized scraper ( plectrum) is located on the upper surface of the right tegmen close to the so-called mirror, i. e. an area, approximately 3 mm long and 2 wide with a thin and clear cuticle surrounded by a framework of thickened, smooth veins (Fig. 4 C, F, G). In the female the upper surface of the right tegmen bears several transversal veins branching off from a longitudinal vein. The transversal veins bear rather uniform “teeth”; each tooth has an acute spine pointing distally (Fig. 5 C-E). The underside of the left tegmen is inconspicuously shaped showing a prominent, sclerotized vein (Fig. 5 A, B).

Source: Greven, Hartmut; Braatz, Sabrina; Schulten, Dieter (2013). Comments on the Malaysian Katydid Ancylecha fenestrata (Fabricius, 1793) (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae). Entomologie heute, 25: 57-75.