Pagiphora annulata ( Brulle , 1832)

Trilar, Tomi, Gjonov, Ilia & Gogala, Matija, 2020, Checklist and provisional atlas of singing cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of Bulgaria, based on bioacoustics, Biodiversity Data Journal 8, pp. 54424-54424 : 54424

Pagiphora annulata ( Brulle, 1832)

Distribution

General distribution: Southern Europe: Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Moldova, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Spain; Central Europe: Hungary, Slovakia; Middle East: Turkey (summarised by Duffels and van der Laan 1985 and Sanborn 2014).

The populations from north Africa (Algeria, Tunisia) ( Nast 1972) were later described as Pagiphora maghrebensis Boulard, 1981 ( Boulard 1981a, Boulard 1992b).

One of the biodiversity hotspots for the genus Pagiphora is in Turkey, where at least three species can be found. Pagiphora annulata ( Brullé, 1832) is distributed in the northwest at least in Hatay Province ( Linnavuori 1965, Demir 2008), Izmir Province ( Lodos and Kalkandelen 1981, Demir 2008) and Aydim Province (Trilar & Gogala, unpublished data). Pagiphora yanni Boulard, 1992 occurs in the south at least in Adana Province ( Boulard 1992a, Boulard 1993, Demir 2008) and Mersin Province (Trilar, unpublished data). For the south-western part of Turkey (Antalya Province) Kartal (1983) and Demir (2007) cite Pagiphora aschei Kartal, 1978 which is most likely an endemic species of the Greek Island Crete ( Trilar and Gogala 2012a). Pagiphora hauptosa Boulard, 1981 was also described from Antalya Province and the song recordings from this area show that this population is acoustically different from the Cretan population (Trilar, unpublished data). This species richness and the peculiar distribution in Turkey raises the question, which Pagiphora species are distributed in the Middle East (Iran, Syria) and Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan).

Distribution in Bulgaria: In Bulgaria, data are available for 45 localities (Fig. 65 ). In literature, we found the data for Bulgaria in Dlabola (1955). Arabadzhiev (1963) considers Pagiphora annulata as a serious pest in the orchards in the area of the Pavlikeni and gives the recipe for eradication by spraying. The species is also listed in overviews by Nast (1972), Nast (1987) and Lodos and Kalkandelen (1981), but without the exact location data for Bulgaria.

In Bulgaria, Pagiphora annulata is scattered all over the country, with the known data in eastern Danubian Plane, northern lowest hills of the Pre-Balkan, northern Balkan Mts., eastern Sub-Balkan valleys, Kyustendil-Blagoevgrad Middle Struma valley, Rila Mt., Tundzha-Burgas Valley, eastern Rhodope Mts., Haskovo Hills Land and Strandzha Mt. (Fig. 65 ).

In this survey, the majority of the population was found between sea level and 600 m (93% of the population) (Fig. 66 ). The highest point where we recorded the species was Polska Skakavitsa at Zemenska Mt. (817 m a.s.l.).

Notes

Acoustic behaviour: The characteristic of the song emission of Pagiphora annulata (the same applies to all other species of the genus Pagiphora ) is a surprisingly low frequency band for such relatively-small animals. According to Bennet-Clark and Young (1994), the emitted frequency of such small cicadas should be about 12 kHz, but for Pagiphora annulata , the main energy was measured between 3 and 4.5 kHz ( Gogala and Trilar 2000, Gogala et al. 2005).

The song was described by Gogala and Trilar (2000) and wing clicking by Gogala and Trilar (2003).

The calling song consists of phrases (duration 2.1-2.9 s), consisting of 7 to 10 echemes, whose duration and intensity increases towards the end of a phrase (Fig. 67 ). The repetition frequency of the echemes in a phrase is 3 ± 0.5 Hz. Phrases are repeated irregularly, usually after an interval of about 2 to 10 seconds. The frequency band of these sounds is surprisingly low for small cicadas, from 3 to 4.5 kHz with a peak around 3.9 kHz ( Gogala and Trilar 2000).

The second part of the last 3 to 5 echemes is accompanied by wing movements and the sound is louder and sharper. The spectrograms show a wider spectrum and oscillograms show the additional short sound pulses (repetition frequency 130-140 Hz) only roughly synchronised with the regular tymbal pulses (Fig. 67 B marked with arrows). A high-speed video analysis proved that the additional clicks with a wide frequency range occur only in connection with wing flapping (last 3 to 5 echemes) and that the wings remain in closed position in the tymbal generated vocal parts (first 4 to 6 echemes) ( Gogala and Trilar 2003).

Selected sound sample of Pagiphora annulata is available on the web pages Songs of the European singing cicadas ( Gogala 2020).

Materials: Suppl. material 15

Diagnosis

Pagiphora annulata (Fig. 64 ) is one of the smallest European singing cicada that are normally found on shrubs and small trees. They are also found on olive trees, fruit trees and in gardens.

Figures

Figure 64. Pagiphora annulata male.

Figure 65. Map with localities of Pagiphora annulata in Bulgaria. Black - literature data, blue - data from collections, red - bioacoustic data collected in this survey.

Figure 66. Altitudinal distribution of Pagiphora annulata. The percentage of the recorded localities is displayed in 200 - metre altitude zones.

Figure 67. Calling song of Pagiphora annulata. (A) spectrogram and oscillogram of three phrases of the calling song; (B) oscillogram of one phrase corresponding to the inverted window in (A), black - tymbal echemes, grey and marked with arrows - wing flapping.