Bioacoustics of Yoyetta landsboroughi

Distribution, habitat and behaviour. From Toowoomba in Queensland, south along the Great Dividing Range and adjacent subcoastal areas through central eastern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory to eastern Victoria where it extends west to the Greater Melbourne area (Diggers Rest) ( Figure 4 ). Adults emerge on grass and congregate on the trunks of eucalypts and artificial structures, such as wooden fence posts and power poles. Populations are relatively sparse apart from during very large emergences in some seasons when masses of cicadas emerge. In Western Sydney, over the past 30 years these large emergences have occurred in 1991, 1994, 1998 (Sydney and Pokolbin), 2003, 2007 and 2013 ( Emery et al. 2005 , D. Emery pers. obs.). In central New South Wales , emergences occur consistently from the second half of October and populations only persist for around one month, with the latest records of occurrence being in mid-December. The emergence period appears to be later in Victoria with records being mainly for December and January. Solitary males have rarely been encountered calling in the field or in captivity and the single recording that has been obtained was made of an individual that formed part of a large aggregation. Males have only been observed calling whilst stationary, although they might continue to call when flying briefly between singing stations. Calling song . The call of this species consists of simple, repetitive, short phrases ( Figure 5 ). Each phrase comprises 4–5 syllables (each syllable being 2 milli-seconds (ms) duration, two pulses, all statistics n = 1 recording) that lasts for 10 ms duration. The syllables are each separated by a brief period of silence ranging from 13 to 22 ms duration. Another period of silence occurs at the end of each phrase and lasts between 300 and 1300 ms duration. The single recording indicates a highest amplitude frequency plateau between 14 and>24 kHz, and a dominant frequency of 21 kHz ( Figure 5 ). Notably, this frequency is slightly beyond the limits of the recording equipment used to capture the song, so the true dominant frequency and upper limit of the frequency plateau may be higher than indicated here. Some minor components of the song extend down to 12 kHz and below.