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KEY WORDS call analysis, Orthoptera song, intermale variation, acoustic communication
Katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) use acoustic syllable types are not produced in a stereotypic order
communication for mate localization and pair for- (Walker and Dew 1972).
mation, with males typically producing a song and Another phaneropterine katydid is Scudderia pistil-
females silently orienting toward conspeciÞc calling lata Brunner, 1878 (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Phan-
males (Ewing 1989, Robinson and Hall 2002). The eropterinae), considered as the only “counting katy-
male creates the advertisement song by rubbing a did” because males add a syllable to each successive
Þle on his left forewing against a scraper on the right phrase of sound (Elliott and Hershberger 2006,
forewing. Each wing closure produces a sound Walker 2008). Similarly to the other Scudderia spp., S.
called a phonotome, or syllable (Ragge and Reyn- pistillata produces four distinct call types, only one of
olds 1998, Gerhardt and Huber 2002). Each katydid which is meant to be advertised to listening females
species produces a species-speciÞc call, differing (Spooner 1964). When a male starts his advertisement
from other species in the temporal pattern of syl- call, there are relatively few syllables produced (two
lables, frequency spectrum, or both. The simplest or three) per phrase. But by the time the male has
advertisement call consists of a single syllable re- Þnished the bout of calling, syllables have been added
peated continuously for the length of calling time or to each phrase leading to a Þnal phrase of nine or 10
multiple wing closures given in close succession to syllables. Such increase in length of phrases of sound
comprise a phrase. More complex calls contain more in a call is unique among katydids. Scudderia curvi-
than one syllable type produced using different cauda De Geer, 1773, a congener of S. pistillata, pro-
muscular movements or Þles with varying tooth duces a similar call (Tuckerman et al. 1993), but it has
structure to create diverse call spectra (Walker and not been analyzed in detail. The call of S. pistillata is
Dew 1972). anecdotally described (Spooner 1968), but the sounds
The more complex katydid calls tend to be pro- produced by S. pistillata and the regularity of the
duced within the subfamily Phaneropterinae, the false counting sequence have not been analyzed.
katydids (Walker and Dew 1972, Heller 1990, Kor- Singing tettigoniid males must not only attract a
sunovskaya 2009). Amblycorypha spp. is particularly female with their songs but also produce a nuptial gift
well documented in the literature for having complex to the female upon mating. There is a direct trade-off
calls, with many species in the genus producing mul- in energy allocation to the calling song and donation
tiple syllable types (Heller 1990, Walker 2004). Am- of the nuptial gift (Simmons et al. 1992). A meta-
blycorypha longinicta Walker, 2005, for example, ex- analysis on male investment in nuptial gifts shows,
hibits four syllable types. Their pattern of production when controlling for body weight and phylogeny, a
exhibits long repetitions in a single syllable type and positive correlation exists between weight and sperm
number transferred, as well as spermatophyllax size
and sperm number. More sperm transferred induces a
1 Corresponding author, e-mail: smv32@cornell.edu. longer refractory period for female remating and may
hasten oviposition (Vahed and Gilbert 1996, Vahed with temperatures ranging from 24 to 29⬚C. Each night
2007). Sperm transfer is also dependent on nutritional a new focal male was selected. Multiple recordings
state (i.e., body condition, Jakob et al. 1996), with were collected from each individual male. Recordings
low-diet males exhibiting a smaller spermatophyllax, were transferred to a computer and analyzed using
and less sperm within a more watery spermatophores two software packages: temporal analysis using Au-
(Jia et al. 2000). If calling song attributes were corre- dacity 1.3.5 Cross-Platform Sound Editor (http://
lated with physical aspects of the calling male, his song audacity.sourceforge.net/) and frequency analysis us-
could provide information for the female to assess the ing Raven Pro 1.3 (Bioacoustics Research Program,
condition of the caller in terms of ability to provide a Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY).
sufÞcient nuptial gift. Because males in better condi- These recordings resulted in 515 calling bouts from
tion provide a greater nuptial gift to the female, fe- roughly 30 individual males that were analyzed for the
males would beneÞt by discriminating acoustic cor- number of syllables produced for each phrase in every
relates of male condition. Analysis of male variability bout. To assess whether the number of syllables in-
and any correlations of size indicators with calling creased over the duration of a bout, comparisons of
song parameters could potentially demonstrate which syllables per phrase produced for the length of the
attributes of the male call may be most informative for bout, as well as conditional probabilities of syllable
the female. number given the preceding phrase were performed.
In this study, recorded bouts of male S. pistillata Conditional probabilities were obtained by hand tab-
advertisement calls were analyzed to characterize the ulating all recorded sequential syllables per phrase for
call. The purpose of the analysis was to answer the all phrases recorded, regardless of their position in the
following questions: 1) Do successive bouts contain bout.
sequentially more syllables? 2) How long is a typical From these recordings, the bouts of 26 identiÞed
male bout? 3) Are there discernible differences be- males (nine from 2007 and 17 from 2009) were used for
tween males in calling song, and are those attributes analysis of inter-male variability. The following indi-
correlated with physical characteristics of the male? vidual malesÕ call parameters were compared: total
From this analysis, we demonstrate that the song is a syllables per bout, maximum syllables per phrase, and
stereotypic counting sequence, that there is signiÞcant number of phrases per bout. These parameters were
variation in call parameters across males, and that then used in analysis with 15 males to determine
some of these parameters are related to male body whether male song correlated with male size. Mor-
size. phological measurements of hind tibia length, prono-
tum area, and forewing length were made using dial
calipers to assess variability in size. Wet weight also
Materials and Methods
was measured upon capture, by using 0.01-g precision
Animal Collection, Care, and Housing. Male S. pis- portable digital balance. Due to no signiÞcant effect of
tillata were collected from old Þelds, dominated by year on the acoustic and morphological parameters
golden rod (Solidago spp.), surrounded by mixed co- measured, data from 2007 and 2009 were combined for
nifer and deciduous forests, on Bald Hill (42⬚ 21⬘11.28⬙ analysis.
N, 76⬚ 22⬘57.46⬙ W) and Connecticut Hill (42⬚ Statistical Analysis. Statistical tests were performed
20⬘32.13⬙ N, 76⬚ 39⬘42.50⬙ W) near Ithaca, NY, from using JMP statistical analysis software (SAS Institute
June to September in 2007 and 2009. Males are nymphs 2009). Whenever possible, a TukeyÐKramer honestly
until mid-June and begin to sing ⬇1 wk after molting signiÞcant difference (HSD) test was used to deter-
to adults. Singing males were collected at night using mine signiÞcantly different means in various compar-
their call for localization. Individuals were housed isons. When the normality assumption could not
separately in 30.5- by 11.5-cm-diameter wire mesh be satisÞed, the nonparametric Van der Waerden
cylindrical cages spaced throughout a 3- by 3-m large (VDW) test was used. To determine any relationship
room. All were fed a varied diet including romaine between morphological features of a male and its
lettuce, pollen, apples, and various herbaceous plants, acoustic parameters, and when multiple data points
including goldenrod and milkweed (Asclepias L.). were collected from a single male, linear and nonlinear
They were provided water via cricket food (FlukerÕs mixed effect models were performed with individual
Orange Cube Complete Cricket Diet, Port Allen, LA) males as the random variable. In the event of multiple
and maintained at room temperature (24 Ð28⬚C) with comparisons, a Bonferroni correction was performed.
natural ambient photoperiods.
Call Recording and Analysis. Individual recordings
Results
of singing males were obtained to characterize the
species advertisement call. A focal male was acousti- Call Characteristics. From sound spectrogram anal-
cally isolated from the group of males and recorded ysis, the structure of the male S. pistillata advertise-
with a Sennheiser ME66/K6 combo shotgun micro- ment call was found to be a noisy song of varying
phone (Sennheiser Electronic Corp., Old Lyme, CT), amplitude (Fig. 1). The initial syllables are quiet, 30 Ð
placed ⬇30 cm from the individualÕs cage, connected 40-dB sound pressure level (SPL), but increase in
to a Tascam HD-P2 digital audio recorder (44-kHz amplitude within each phrase and over the length of
sampling frequency; TEAC Corp., Tokyo, Japan). In- the bout. The frequency spectra of male S. pistillata
dividuals were recorded from 2 to 4 h on a single night, bouts are broad band, with most power between 6 and
September 2011 VILLARREAL AND GILBERT: UNIQUE COUNTING CALL OF A KATYDID 947
Fig. 3. Conditional probabilities of incremental counting in male S. pistillata calling bouts. Numbers in biggest font
represent the number of syllables per phrase. Arrows indicate the probability that the subsequent phrase contained the
syllable number at the arrow head. Intensity of arrows indicates strength of probability. Transitional probabilities ⬍15% are
omitted for clarity. (Online Þgure in color.)
sion of weight on pronotal area (e.g., Wagner and direct production of the call. Heavier males produce
Hoback 1999 as an index). songs with more phrases and more syllables in later
No acoustic parameter of the male call correlated phrases. Therefore, songs potentially contain infor-
with any morphological measures that scaled directly mation about male condition that the female could
with body size. However, residual weight predicted use to asses multiple calling males. Males that put
both the total syllables per bout (mixed effects linear more energy into their bouts could indicate a ben-
regression; Syllables per bout ⫽ 25.12 ⫹ 142.29residual eÞt to the female in terms of energy invested. As
weight; P ⫽ 0.0264; RMSE ⫽ 12.1273) and the number well, increased calling time associated with produc-
of phrases per bout (Number phrases ⫽ 5.03 ⫹ 20.94re- ing more phrases could be advantageous to a male
sidual weight; P ⫽ 0.0402; RMSE ⫽ 2.0041) (Fig. 5). in that there is a greater chance of the female hear-
ing the call. Although males were variable in a num-
ber of acoustic and physical variables, an under-
Discussion
standing of whether the variability among males can
This study is the Þrst to document an unusual fea- be assessed by females listening remains unknown,
ture in the calling song of male Scudderia pistillata, in but is the subject of ongoing studies.
which males repeatedly produce a series of phrases Variation in Male Call. Singing in katydids is a
comprised of increasing numbers of syllables. The highly energetic behavior (Stevens and Josephson
males in the current study exhibited congruence in 1977, Suarez 2000). Although the energetic cost of
adding one or occasionally two syllables to each sub- calling in S. pistillata is unknown, males of Requena
sequent phrase in the Þrst seven phrases in a bout. verticalis Walker, an intermittent caller like S. pistil-
Within this species-speciÞc signal, however, individ- lata, exhibit a similar high rate of oxygen consumed
ual males show variation in a number of acoustic pa- per wing stroke as most trilling species (Bailey et al.
rameters. There also seems to be no trade off in the 1993). Several studies have shown that females re-
number of syllables and the number of phrases a male spond more strongly to the more energetically expen-
produces. Males with relatively few phrases in a bout sive parameters of a maleÕs call: more syllables, longer
can still produce a large number of syllables per periods of calling, and faster syllable rates (Bailey et
phrase. al. 1990, Galliart and Shaw 1996, Gray 1997, Tauber et
Also, we found that an aspect of the male song al. 2001, Orci 2007). Several studies also have found
relates to a feature of male size unrelated to the that females prefer larger males (Gwynne 1982, Gal-
liart and Shaw 1992, Gray 1997) and that heavier males
called more continuously and did not lose as much
weight while calling as did smaller males (Galliart and
Shaw 1994). Because the size and quality of the sper-
matophore is contingent on the size and condition of
the male producing it (Heller et al. 1998, Jia et al. 2000,
Vahed 2007, Lehmann and Lehmann 2009), energetic
information in the song is of potential value to listen-
ing females.
Although little energy may need to be invested to
add single syllables to phrases, much energy would be
invested to produce bouts of more phrases. In the
Fig. 4. Individual male variability in the average maxi- Table 1. Morphological measurements and their correlations
mum number of syllables per phrase (dark gray) and the with male wet weight
average number of phrases per bout (light gray) with SDs.
The data from individual males have been ordered from Variable Equation P value R2 RMSE
smallest to largest average number of phrases per bout (light Right hind tibia length 0.728 ⫹ 0.448xa 0.3909 0.167 0.052
gray) to show the variability in how well these two variables Right forewing length 1.023 ⫹ 0.569x 0.0213 0.439 0.034
correlate. Stars indicate those males (only nine of 26) for Pronotal area 0.020 ⫹ 0.036x 0.0042 0.558 0.002
which these variables were signiÞcantly correlated (P value
⬍0.05) within an individual male. a
x, male wet weight.
September 2011 VILLARREAL AND GILBERT: UNIQUE COUNTING CALL OF A KATYDID 949
tential is achieved (Heller 1986). A potential adaptive Dadour, I. R. 1989. Temporal pattern changes in the calling
function of amplitude modulation could be to reduce song of the katydid Mygalopsis marki (Bailey) in response
eavesdropping from unintended receivers, including to conspeciÞc song (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae). J. Insect
predators and rival conspeciÞc males. By not broad- Behav. 2: 199 Ð215.
casting its call as loud initially, the quieter phrases Dobler, S., K. G. Heller, and O. von Helversen. 1994. Song
pattern recognition and an auditory time window in the
would be perceived by the nearest female. From un-
female bushcricket, Ancistrura nigrovittata (Orthoptera:
published data of S. pistillata, when a female is de- Phaneropterinae). J. Comp. Physiol. 175: 67Ð74.
tected, the male quickly works to localize her call and Elliott, L., and W. Hershberger. 2006. The songs of insects.
moves in her direction. He also alters the call rate and Houghton Mifßin, Boston, MA.
amplitude, a behavior also witnessed by Spooner Ewing, A. W. 1989. Mechanisms of sound production: ely-
(1968). Less movement would be required to reach a tral stridulation in tettigoniids, pp. 50 Ð52. In A. W. Ewing
nearby female, and as a result, allows for fewer op- (ed.), Arthropod bioacoustics: neurobiology and behav-
portunities for any satellite males to intercept their ior. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
duet or lessens the chance of being heard by a pred- Galliart, P. L., and K. C. Shaw. 1992. The relation of male
ator. With each added syllable, the male incrementally and female acoustic parameters to female phonotaxis in
the katydid Amblycorypha parvipennis. J. Orthop. Res. 1:
increases the active range of his signal, with louder
110 Ð115.
syllables being perceived by more distant females. Galliart, P. L., and K. C. Shaw. 1994. The relation of weight
In this study, we present the Þrst analysis of a ka- and sound level to continuity of male calling in the ka-
tydid exhibiting an elaboration of calling behavior in tydid Amblycorypha parvipennis. J. Orthop. Res. 2: 43Ð 45.
which syllables are regularly added to subsequent Galliart, P. L., and K. C. Shaw. 1996. The effect of variation
phrases. Some male pseudophylline katydids alter the in parameters of the male calling song of the katydid
number of pulses produced (Hebard 1941), but not in Amblycorypha parvipennis (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae)
a speciÞc sequence and in not as long of a series as on female phonotaxis and phonoresponse. J. Insect Be-
produced by S. pistillata. Although the mechanism hav. 9: 841Ð 855.
behind this counting behavior remains unknown, ex- Gerhardt, H. C., and F. Huber. 2002. Acoustic commu-
nication in insects and anurans: common problems and
plorations into its adaptive function are currently un-
diverse solutions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago,
derway. Analysis of female response to bouts with a IL.
series of incrementally increasing phrases should assist Gray, P. A. 1997. Female house crickets, Acheta domesticus,
in our understanding of why this complex counting prefer the chirps of large males. Anim. Behav. 54: 1553Ð
behavior has evolved. 1562.
Gwynne, D. T. 1982. Mate selection by female katydid (Or-
thoptera, Tettigoniidae: Conocephalus nigro). Anim. Be-
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