Bioacoustics of Leptophyes sicula

Diagnosis : The male can be distinguished easily from L. albovittata , L. boscii , L. discoidalis and L. laticauda , by the shape of the cercus and, in the first three species, the length of the elytra. Of the remaining European Leptophyes species it is morphologically similar to L. lisae of Greece . The song, however is different, the syllable being unfragmented, while the syllable of L. lisae is broken into three fragments. It can be recognized from both L. punctatissima and L. calabra by the shape of the cercus, bulge at the hind edge of the elytron, form of the stridulatory file and the number of stridulatory teeth. The song is useful for the distinction with L. calabra (similar to the song of L. lisae ), but the song of L. punctatissima is similar tot that of L. sicula . A summary is given in table 1 and figure 13–16. The female is different from L. boscii and L. discoidalis in the absence of the notch at the base of the ovipositor. The ovipositor is clearly longer than in L. albovittata and shorter than in L. laticauda . We found no clear distinguishing characters with L. punctatissima and L. lisae (the female of L. calabra is unknown). Heller & Willemse (1989) mention the size of the lateral pit of the ovipositor, body colour and the shape of the hind margin of the pronotum to separate L. lisae from L. punctatissima , but they also conclude that the distinction is often difficult.

Description. Male: Head with fastigium narrow. Pronotum quite flat, slightly upturned at the hind margin ( Fig. 6 a). Elytron more or less round, with a strong bulging at the hind margin ( Fig. 6 e), visible part of the elytron approximately the length of the pronotum ( Fig. 6 a). Stridulatory file with 110–124 teeth. In the basal part of the file the teeth are narrow and irregularly spaced, in the distal 2/3 part the teeth are broad and regularly spaced ( Fig. 6 g). Cercus slender and evenly curved, tapering into a sharp, dark point. The cercus somewhat constricted at 1/2 of its length ( Fig. 6 c). Subgenital plate long and narrow, extending beyond the tip of the cerci. General colour in living animals light green, with numerous reddish-brown spots ( Fig. 3 ). Pronotum dorsally greenish with creme coloured margins. Elytron dorsally mostly brownish, with black stripe and green foremargin. In some specimens the region around the stridulatory file lighter than the surrounding area. Abdomen dorsally with red brown stripe. Measurements (n = 5): body 13.7–15.2 mm , pronotum 2.4 mm , visible part elytron 2.7–3.2 mm , hind femur 13.6–15.1 mm . Female: Head with fastigium narrow. Pronotum quite flat, not upturned at the hind margin ( Fig. 8 a). Visible part of the elytron approximately half of the length of the pronotum ( Fig. 8 b). Ovipositor evenly curved ( Fig. 8 c). General colour in living animals light green, with numerous reddish-brown spots ( Fig. 8 c). Pronotum dorsally greenish with crème coloured margins. Elytron dorsally mostly yellow-brown, with black stripe and green foremargin. Abdomen dorsally with red brown stripe. Measurements (n = 1): body (without ovipositor) 17.6 mm , pronotum 3.2 mm , visible part elytron 1.9 mm , hind femur 16.8 mm , ovipositor 7.2 mm . Sound: The song is a more or less regular repetition of a ticking sound, exceptionally broken in two fragments in close distance ( Fig. 7 ). Analogous to other species of the genus it has to be regarded as a simple syllable, lasting about 40–50 ms. These syllables are repeated every 0,5–3 s. Although the resolution of the available recordings is not sufficient, it is clear that the syllable consists at least of about 8–15 pulses. A reliable frequency spectrum could not be established, as the available recordings do not include frequencies above 20 kHz.