Bioacoustics of Tettigonia

Ünal (2025: 29–30) commented on the synonymy between Tettigonia armeniaca Tarbinsky, 1940 , T. acutipennis Ebner, 1946 , and T. turcica Ramme, 1951 , proposed by Grzywacz et al. (2017) , raising doubts that the conclusions made by the authors were incorrect due to the lack of new material from the type localities of the last two species. Ünal’s (2025) comments are mostly based on criticism of the generalized statements by Grzywacz et al. (2017) without providing empirical evidence to defend the species status of the taxa concerned. Although we agree that further studies will be necessary to reveal the whole range of morphological, acoustic, ecological and genetic variability of this lineage to answer the question about possible internal gene exchange, we believe Ünal (2025) applies different standards than in the case with other genera commented in the same paper, i.e., Anterastes and Psorodonotus . For example, some synonymisations made by the author in the same paper are based on low morphological differentiation (against genetic evidence) and assumed occurrence over the same mountain range (e.g., see the comment on the synonymysation of Psorodonotus giresun with P. soganli —“ The shapes of the cerci, titillators, subgenital plates, ovipositors, and pronotum do not effectively distinguish any of the populations. Some variations are naturally expected in all species. It is unlikely that two species within this genus would have identical morphology and occupy such closely situated type localities on the same mountain ridge. ”). Grzywacz et al. (2017) studied acoustically and genetically specimens from a territory covering ca. 55,000 km 2 and compared that material to museum specimens from an area covering at least 1500 km longitudinal distance. After studying various morphological features, the authors selected a combination of characters that characterizes the T. armeniaca complex and separates it from T. caudata ( Charpentier, 1845 ) . Although this combination of characters contrasts some published measurements, contrary to Ünal’s (2025) opinion that the sample was inadequate to cover the variability within the studied complex, we posit the possibility that former type series contain both specimens of T. armeniaca s.l. and T. caudata (e.g., Tarbinsky 1940 and Ramme 1951 ). Ünal (2025) also contradicts himself when stating that the length and the shape of tegmina widely overlap and later diagnosing the species by length of tegmina. In conclusion, we agree that additional empirical data will allow a rigorous testing of these taxonomical assumptions, yet, at present we believe, Ünal (2025) does not provide any new empirical evidence to refute the hypothesis proposed by Grzywacz et al. (2017) .