Montana tomini (Pylnov, 1916)

Ivković, Slobodan, Iorgu, Ștefan, Horvat, Laslo, Chobanov, Dragan, Korsunovskaya, Olga & Heller, Klaus-Gerhard, 2017, New data on the bush-cricket Montana medvedevi (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae), critically endangered in Europe (EU 28), and a comparison of its song with all known song patterns within the genus, Zootaxa 4263 (3), pp. 527-542 : 539

Montana tomini (Pylnov, 1916) — Figs. 7 J1, 7J2.

Localities: Russia, S Siberia, Tuva, 3.5 km to N of village Ersin (N 50°15', E 95°09'), 12.ix.1986, leg. O. Korsunovskaya (2 males) . Mongolia, Selenge Aimag, Khonin Nuga , meadows, (N 49°05', E 107°18'), 900–1000 m a.s.l., 20–21.viii.1997, leg. K.- G. Heller (1 male) . Mongolia, Selenge Aimag, Tal ca. 20 km east northeast (D) Züünkharaa (N 48°54', E 106°42'), 1050 m a.s.l., 19.viii.1997, leg. K.- G. Heller (1 male) . Mongolia, Töv Aimag, forested hills, ca. 20 km north of Tereldsch (N 47°48', E 107°42'), 1850 m a.s.l., 15.viii.1997 , CH 5317, leg. K.- G. Heller (1 male; Fig. 7 J2).

The most characteristic property of the calling song of M. tomini is the extraordinarily large duration of its syllables ( Fig. 7 J). At 20°C the last syllable of a bi-syllabic echeme lasted about 200 ms. Only M. helleri is in the same range (150 ms at 30°C). However, both species differ considerably in the number of impulses per syllable: M. helleri has 32 impulses (and 39 teeth in the stridulatory file; Ciplak et al 2006), M. tomini ca. 80 impulses (and 108 teeth; Fig. 6 C). Concerning the number of syllables per echeme, there is a surprising variability ( Figs 7 J1, 7J2). One animal ( CH 5317) showed consistently always three to six (eight) syllables per echeme (cage recording at 16°C), the others only two to four.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Scanning electron microscopic images of stridulatory files. A— Montana medvedevi, B— Montana montana, C— Montana tomini (scale 100 µm).

FIGURE 7. Oscillograms of calling songs of Montana species. A— medvedevi, B— striata (left Romania, right Russia), C 1 — decticiformis (Shatpe 27 ° C + sun), C 2 — decticiformis (Zharmysh 20 ° C), D— taurica, E 1 — montana (Austria), E 2 — montana (Ukraine, 25 ° C), F— daghestanica, G— armeniaca, H— eversmanni (see text), I— tianshanica, J 1 — tomini (25 ° C), J 2 — tomini (16 ° C), K— helleri. See Table 2 and text for details.