Bioacoustics of Myopsalta majurae

Distribution, habitat and behaviour ( Fig. 17 ). Myopsalta majurae is presently known only from the slopes of Mt Majura and Mt Ainslie in the Australian Capital Territory . The single known population occurs in grassy woodland and on the fringes of monoculture forests of Allocasuarina verticellata . Adults have been collected in early–mid December. Males sit on the stems of small trees and shrubs. They sing sporadically during warm conditions. Calling song ( Fig. 23 ). The calling song contains a set of repeated phrases of variable duration. Each phrase contains 4–10 (typically 4–7) long echemes, each 0.326– 0.411 s duration and separated by gaps of 0.041– 0.081 s duration (all statistics, n =3 recordings). Each phrase ends with a slightly shorter echeme (0.278– 0.306 s duration), short gap (0.020– 0.026 s duration), a macrosyllable (0.047– 0.064 s duration) and a longer gap (0.153– 0.172 s duration). It is anticipated that females respond during the gap following the macrosyllable at the end of each phrase, although there are presently no observations to support this prediction. This species calls during the day and is not known to sing at dusk. The calling song maintains an even frequency distribution throughout, with a high amplitude plateau of 9.7–14.2 kHz and a dominant frequency of approximately 10.2 kHz.

Calling song (Fig. 23). The calling song contains a set of repeated phrases of variable duration. Each phrase contains 4–10 (typically 4–7) long echemes, each 0.326–0.411 s duration and separated by gaps of 0.041–0.081 s duration (all statistics, n =3 recordings). Each phrase ends with a slightly shorter echeme (0.278–0.306 s duration), short gap (0.020–0.026 s duration), a macrosyllable (0.047–0.064 s duration) and a longer gap (0.153–0.172 s duration). It is anticipated that females respond during the gap following the macrosyllable at the end of each phrase, although there are presently no observations to support this prediction. This species calls during the day and is not known to sing at dusk. The calling song maintains an even frequency distribution throughout, with a high amplitude plateau of 9.7–14.2 kHz and a dominant frequency of approximately 10.2 kHz.