Calling songs of certain orthopteran species (Insecta, Orthoptera) in southern Portugal

Abstract

The calling songs produced by males of the Orthoptera occurring at the field station “Herdade da Ribeira Abaixo” (Centre for Environmental Biology), in Grândola (southern Portugal), are described. The songs were recorded in the field with a portable professional DAT recorder and were analysed in the form of oscillograms and sonagrams. Except for the interesting Gryllotalpa vineae Bennet–Clark, these are the 12 first descriptions of the acoustic parameters and behaviour of the Portuguese populations of the 13 species occurring at the field station and which belong to the following genera: Conocephalus Thunberg, Tettigonia Linnaeus, Platycleis Fieber, Thyreonotus Serville and Uromenus Bolívar (Tettigoniidae), Gryllus Linnaeus, Nemobius Serville and Oecanthus Serville (Gryllidae), Gryllotalpa Latreille (Gryllotalpidae), and Omocestus Bolívar and Euchorthippus Tarbinskii (Acrididae).All species, including pairs and closely related groups, can be readily separated by temporal and frequency parameters of the calling songs through oscillogram and sonagram analyses. Platycleis sabulosa Azam is a new record for Portugal.