A new, morphologically cryptic bush-cricket discovered on the basis of its song in the Carpathian Mountains (Insecta, Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae)

Abstract

A new, morphologically cryptic species of phaneropterine bush-crickets is described from the grasslands of the Romanian Eastern Carpathians. Despite the morphological and acoustic similarities with the recently described Isophya nagyi Szövényi, Puskás & Orci, I. bucovinensis sp. n. is characterized by a peculiar male calling song, with faster syllable repetition rate (160–220 syllables per minute, at 22–27°C) and less complex syllable structure (composed of only two elements instead of three observable in I. nagyi). The morphological description of the new species is supplemented with an oscillographic and spectrographic analysis of the male calling song and male–female pair-forming acoustic duet. An acoustic signal-based identification key is provided for all the presently known species of the Isophya camptoxypha species group, including the new species.

Geographic differentiation in male calling song of Isophya modestior (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Phaneropterinae)

“…Zhantiev and Dubrovin (1977) published the first study on the stridulatory morphologies and song patterns in the genus Isophya Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878, establishing that both characters are strictly species-specific within the genus and effective in discriminating cryptic species. These results were confirmed by Heller (1988) and Heller et al (2004), resulting in the description of various new cryptic taxa within the genus Isophya (Orci et al 2010;Iorgu 2012;Iorgu et al 2017;Sevgili 2020) and resolving some identification problems in widely distributed species (Heller 1988).…”

Molecular data and species diagnosis in Essigella Del Guercio, 1909 (Sternorrhyncha, Aphididae, Lachninae)

“…Other kinds of non-morphological characters are commonly used in other groups. For example, songs or acoustic signals are used to differentiate species in several animal groups and can be considered good diagnostic characters in frogs ( Brown and Richards 2008 ) or in Orthopteran insects ( Hertach et al 2015 ; Iorgu et al 2017 ). In consequence, we judge that the absence, the presence, or the identity of a nucleotide or of a DNA sequence fragment are the molecular equivalent to the absence, the presence, or the shape of a seta, a puncture, or of any other morphological character.…”

The taxonomic status of recently described Isophya taxa from Serbia (Tettigoniidae, Phaneropterinae)

“…Therefore, characters such as the shape of cerci, pronotum, tegmina and ovipositor have been used for identifying species within the genera Poecilimon and Isophya (e.g., Ramme 1933Ramme , 1951Harz 1969). Due to a high intraspecific morphological variability, especially within species of Isophya, identification based upon morphological traits alone is almost impossible (Heller et al 2004;Orci et al 2005;Iorgu et al 2017). Introducing male calling songs and stridulatory files as species-specific characters in the genus Isophya by Zhantiev & Dubrovin (1977) resolved the taxonomic status of many species and several new cryptic species have been discovered in recent years (e.g., Orci et al 2010;Iorgu 2012;Iorgu et al 2017).…”