Bioacoustics of Musicodamon atlanteus

Fage (1939) described this monotypic genus based on the discovery of two female specimens, deposited in the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle Paris , MNHN , collected in the region of Tata [about 700m a.s.l. ] in Morocco , and confirmed the generic status later ( Fage 1954 ), as did Weygoldt (1997) and Prendini et al . (2005) . Its remarkable stridulatory organs are the main reason for its separated status ( Fage 1939 ; Lawrence 1969 ; Weygoldt 1997 , 2000b ). Weygoldt (2000a , 2000b ) for the first time reported males and confirmed its presence “is still common at the type locality” ( Weygoldt 2000a: 29 ) – without giving the year of this observation. Weygoldt (2000a: 29) also added two new records from Algeria ( Hoggar = Ahaggar , about 1400m a.s.l. ; Tassili-n-Ajjer = Tassili-n-Ajjer , about 1100m a.s.l. ) . Prendini et al . (2005) gave coordinates for the material they used in their phylogenetic study near Tata in July 1999 , collected by S. Huber (again collected by S. Huber in 2015: Fig. 3–4 ). Prendini et al. (2005 : 231) wrote “several specimens were collected during this and two further visits“. Prendini et al. (2005) confirmed the generic status of Musicodamon but without a fixed position in the relationships of the genera, “ Phrynichodamon and Musicodamon , which were the most unstable in the present analyses, and the matter warrants further investigation” ( Prendini et al . 2005 : 224). The specification by Harvey (2013) about the type locality is misleading, because Guelmim-Es Semara was the name of an administrative region and the town Guelmim (of which Harvey used the co-ordinates) is not situated near Tata. Habitat . Caves and deep rock fissures, sometimes found in houses.