Quesada gigas (Olivier)

SUEUR, JÉRÔME, 2002, Cicada acoustic communication: potential sound partitioning in a multispecies community from Mexico (Hemiptera: Cicadomorpha: Cicadidae), Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 75 (3), pp. 379-394 : 382-383

QUESADA GIGAS ( FIG. 2 )

Seasonal rhythm. From March to August, dry and wet seasons.

Nycthemeral rhythm. Activity at dawn (6.45 a.m. to 7.00 a.m) and at dusk (from 19.30 p.m. to 20.10 p.m), short and low choruses during the night.

Calling site and calling posture. Inhabited the canopy, some specimens at low level, on trunks or on primary stems. No body movement during sound production.

Calling song. Composed of two parts. The first part (A), lasting 6.23 s ± 1.87 (3.46–11.07, 17), was a succession of 51 ± 15.11 (32–91, 17) shorts echemes. Echemes of part A consisted of 4–7 irregular pulses, the first being separated from the others. The second part (B), lasting 8.23 s ± 1.85 (4.83–11.15, 20), was an irregular whistle sharply tuned at about 2240 Hz. Part A and B can be produced without silent periods. Pulses of part B were damped with a repetition rate at 330 Hz.

Behaviour. Gregarious: static at low density but mobile at high density, males calling two or three times and then flying to another calling site. Sang in chorus with synchronization of the part B.

Figures

Figure 2. Calling song of Quesada gigas. (A) Oscillogram and sonogram of the end of one call; (B) three successive echemes of part A; (C) portion of end of part B; (D) elementary oscillations of part B.