Bioacoustics review of Anatolian species of the predatory bush-cricket genus Saga (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Saginae) with the description of a new species

Abstract

The genus Saga is a genus of generally large predatory bush-cricket species. It includes 13 taxa in the Palaearctic region. In this research, eight species belonging to Saga (Tettigoniidae, Saginae) were sampled during field studies in different regions of Anatolia of Turkey between 2010 and 2018 (except one specimen). The bioacoustic parameters of these species recorded during the field or in laboratory conditions and the male calling song descriptions, as well as the oscillographic illustrations and distribution maps are given. A new population of Saga found from the South-Eastern Taurus (Hakkari province), which is affiliated to a new species and shows similarity to S. ephippigera, along with the morphological and bioacoustical descriptions of Saga hakkarica sp. n. Şirin & Taylan from Turkey, are also given. The relationships between the new species and the closest taxa are discussed using morphological and bioacoustical characters. The structural investigations of the male calling songs reveal three different bioacoustic groups affiliated to eight Anatolian Saga species; as (i) Ephippigera group (S. syriaca + (S. ephippigera + Saga hakkarica), (ii) Natoliae group (S. natoliae + (S. beieri + (S. longicaudata + S. puella) and (iii) S. cappadocica.

Description of the Predator Bush Cricket, Saga Ephippigera Fischer Von Waldheim, 1846 (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae) From Erbil Province, Kurdistan Region- Iraq

“…For identifying the specimens, several keys were used (Kaltenbach, 1967;Bei-Bienko, 1964;Ragge, 1964;Kaltenbach, 1990;Çıplak, 2003;Mahasneh and Katbeh-Bader, 2004;Şirin et al, 2019;Khudhur and Ahmed, 2020). Then insects were deposited in the Insect Museum-Plant Protection Department, Directorate of Agriculture Researches, Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Erbil, Iraq.…”

“…Hence, S. ephippigera included two subspecies S. ephippigera ephippigera and S. ephippigera syriaca. While some references considered that S. syriac as an isolated species (Kirby, 1906;Bader and Massa, 2001;Şirin et al, 2019;Aslan and Candan, 2019). The adult specimens were chosen among the collected specimens for description and identification.…”

“…The adult specimens were chosen among the collected specimens for description and identification. Some morphological characteristics were selected for describing such as color, size and sclerotization of taxonomic parts that were renowned in the literature (Massa and Fontana, 1998;Şirin et al, 2019).…”