No abstract

The genus Isophya is the largest genus of bush-crickets in Central Europe and the second largest in Europe. Its members are difficult to identify because of their morphological similarity. However, most species differ distinctly in their calling songs. Nearly half of the Central European species have been described less than fifty years ago, and no detailed revision has been published since this time. We have analysed male morphology and bioacoustics, and present figures of male pronotum and tegmina, cerci, stridulatory file and oscillograms of the calling songs of all species known to occur in the region including a identification table. According to these data, the following taxa are considered to be valid species:

Sexual selection is thought to have led to searching as a profitable, but risky way of males obtaining mates. While there is great variation in which sex searches, previous theory has not considered search evolution when both males and females benefit from multiple mating. We present new theory and link it with data to bridge this gap. Two different search protocols exist between species in the bush-cricket genus Poecilimon (Orthoptera): females search for calling males, or males search for calling females. Poecilimon males also transfer a costly nuptial food gift to their mates during mating. We relate variations in searching protocols to variation in nuptial gift size among 32 Poecilimon taxa. As predicted, taxa where females search produce significantly larger nuptial gifts than those where males search. Our model and results show that search roles can reverse when multiple mating brings about sufficiently strong material benefits to females.

No abstract

No abstract