Bioacoustics of Quesada gigas

REMARKS. The type locality of Java is a mistake. The species is found over most of the New World ( Sanborn & Heath 2014 ). Quesada gigas is one of the largest of Bolivian cicadas with body lengths up to 45 mm and wingspans of 120 mm reported ( Sanborn & Heath 2017 ). The body is brown marked with piceous. The male abdomen is widest at segments 3 and 4, male timbal covers recurve along the posterior timbal cavity forming a ribbon-like structure posterior to the timbals with a small triangular extension laterally. The animals sing at and dawn and dusk with a pure-tone song that sounds like a whistle. The species is endothermic ( Sanborn et al . 1995b ) to permit activity without access to solar radiation.

Seasonal rhythm. From March to August, dry and wet seasons. Nycthemeral rhythm. Activity at dawn (6.45 a.m. to 7.00 a.m) and at dusk (from 19.30 p.m. to 20.10 p.m), short and low choruses during the night. Calling site and calling posture. Inhabited the canopy, some specimens at low level, on trunks or on primary stems. No body movement during sound production. Calling song. Composed of two parts. The first part (A), lasting 6.23 s ± 1.87 (3.46–11.07, 17), was a succession of 51 ± 15.11 (32–91, 17) shorts echemes. Echemes of part A consisted of 4–7 irregular pulses, the first being separated from the others. The second part (B), lasting 8.23 s ± 1.85 (4.83–11.15, 20), was an irregular whistle sharply tuned at about 2240 Hz. Part A and B can be produced without silent periods. Pulses of part B were damped with a repetition rate at 330 Hz. Behaviour. Gregarious: static at low density but mobile at high density, males calling two or three times and then flying to another calling site. Sang in chorus with synchronization of the part B.

(Giant-cicada) Flying song Not observed. Calling song It presents two distinct sections. The first consists of a series of short echemmes, totalling 41.75 ± 16.9 (32–67) in all, gradually intensifying (dB) and reducing the interval time from 0.07 ± 0.008 (0.07–0.09) to much smaller values towards the end of this part. The second part is a long echemme lasting 8.7 ± 2.3 (6.2–11.5) seconds. Quite common in late afternoons and early mornings, this cicada currently exhibits the lowest frequency values documented for Neotropical cicadas. It also produces sounds in broad-range frequency, with F1 at 1.8 ± 0.23 (1.7–2.1), F2 at 4.34 ± 0.05 (4.3–4.4), and F3 at 6.4 ± 0.05 (6.4–6.5). Stress call Not recorded.

Remarks. The type locality of Java is a mistake. The species is found over most of the New World ( Sanborn & Heath 2014 ). The undetermined species of Quesada in Wolda (1977) is Q. gigas as it was found with Q. gigas and the other species of the genus has only been recorded from Brazil and Peru ( Metcalf 1963a ; Duffels & van der Laan 1985 ; Sanborn 2013 ). Quesada gigas is the largest of the Panamanian cicadas with body lengths up to 45 mm and wingspans of 120 mm reported ( Sanborn & Heath 2017 ). The body is brown marked with piceous. The male abdomen is widest at segments 3 and 4, male timbal covers recurve along the posterior timbal cavity forming a ribbon-like structure posterior to the timbals with a small triangular extension laterally. This is a dry season cicada ( Wolda 1989 ) . The species calls at dawn, during the day and at dusk in Panama ( Wolda 1993 ) similar to the pattern described for the species in Argentina ( Sanborn et al. 1995 ). Males emerge earlier than females ( Wolda & Ramos 1992 ). The song sounds like a whistle.

Diagnosis. Quesada gigas is another of the large Trinidadian cicadas with body lengths up to 45 mm and wingspans of 120 mm having been reported ( Sanborn & Heath 2017 ). The head width across the eyes is narrower than the pronotum and about as wide as the mesonotum, the head is distinctly triangular with an anterior extension of the postclypeus, the lateral pronotum is convergent anteriorly in dorsal view, the lateral pronotal collar is narrower laterally than dorsally, timbal covers recurve along the posterior timbal cavity forming a ribbon-like structure posterior to the timbals with a small triangular extension that expose the majority of timbal laterally, the male abdomen is widest at segments 3 and 4, proximal wing venation is ground color, and infuscation found only on the radial and radiomedial crossveins easily distinguish it from Majeorona aper . Fidicinoides descampsi can be distinguished by the stout body and the infuscation found along the ambient vein, distal apical cell veins, and connecting across all crossveins of the fore wings and hind wings. The song sounds like a steam whistle. Their ability to call at dusk is due to the endothermy exhibited by the species ( Sanborn et al . 1995 ). Davis (1944) reported emergence times for the species during February and March on Tobago .

REMARKS. The type locality of Java is a mistake. The species is found over most of the New World ( Sanborn 2011a , b; 2013 ; 2014a ; 2018b ; 2019b ; Sanborn & Heath 2014 ; 2017 ). Quesada gigas is one of the largest of Peruvian cicadas. Body lengths up to 45 mm and wingspans of 120 mm have been reported for the species ( Sanborn & Heath 2017 ). The body is tawny marked with piceous, the male abdomen is widest at segments 3 and 4, and the male timbal covers recurve along the posterior timbal cavity forming a ribbon-like structure posterior to the timbals with a small triangular extension laterally. The pure-tone song sounds like a whistle and is primarily produced at dawn and dusk. The species is able to remain active without access to solar radiation through endothermic heat production to maintain body temperature ( Sanborn et al . 1995b ). The lack of infuscation on the proximal and distal radius anterior 2, proximal median vein 1, medial crossvein and mediocubital crossvein of the fore wing quickly distinguish it from Q. sodalis ( Walker, 1850 ) .

Remarks. The type locality of Java is a mistake. The species is found over most of the tropical and subtropical New World ( Sanborn & Heath 2014 ; 2017). Quesada gigas is another of the large Trinidadian cicadas with body lengths up to 45 mm and wingspans of 120 mm having been reported ( Sanborn & Heath 2017 ). The head width across the eyes is narrower than pronotum and about as wide as the mesonotum, head distinctly triangular with anterior extension of postclypeus, lateral pronotum convergent anteriorly in dorsal view, lateral pronotal collar narrower laterally than dorsally, timbal covers recurve along posterior timbal cavity forming ribbon-like structure posterior to timbals with small triangular extension laterally exposing majority of timbal, male abdomen widest at segments 3 and 4, proximal wing venation ground color, and infuscation found only on the radial and radiomedial crossveins easily distinguish it from Majeorona aper . Fidicinoides descampsi can be distinguished by the stout body and the infuscation found along the ambient vein, distal apical cell veins, and connecting across all crossveins of the fore wings and hind wings. The song sounds like a steam whistle. Their ability to call at dusk is due to the endothermy exhibited by the species ( Sanborn et al . 1995 ). Davis (1944) reported emergence times for the species during February and March on Tobago .