Conocephalus (Anisoptera) saltator (Saussure, 1859)

Fianco, Marcos, Szinwelski, Neucir & Faria, Luiz R. R., 2022, Katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) from the Iguaçu National Park, Brazil, Zootaxa 5136 (1), pp. 1-72 : 11

Conocephalus (Anisoptera) saltator (Saussure, 1859)

Fig. 2G, H ; 8E

Distribution: Brazil: Bahia, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná; Colombia: Antioquia, Valle del Cauca; Costa Rica: Cartago; Ecuador: Guayas; French Guiana; Guatemala; Guyana; Panama; Paraguay: Paraguari; Peru; Venezuela; United States: Hawaii.

New record for the Paraná State.

Comments: This species presents a broad geographical distribution, and is extremely abundant in open fields, being always found on grasses and other vegetations of open areas where they eat seeds of these plants. One interesting characteristic of this taxon is the polymorphism, as macropterous and brachypterous individuals can be found, as discovered by Chamorro-Rengifo et al. (2018). Females seem to be rarer than males, but this perception can be related to sampling bias, since the aural observation was the principal way to find the specimens.

Bioacoustics ( Fig 4A–C ): The calling song is structured in diplosyllables, the closing stroke producing a brief and with high amplitude sound, and the opening stroke producing long and with low amplitude sound. Just the closing stroke can be heard by human ear, because the opening strokes reach frequencies above 20 kHz. The calling song of the species was already described by Chamorro-Rengifo et al. (2018).

Dominant frequency: 13.8 ± 2.2 kHz.

Bandwidth: 18.8 ± 2.7 kHz.

Duration: Syllable: 0.26 ± 0.4 s.

Mute interval: Syllable: 0.3 ± 0.07 s; Echeme: 0.9 ± 0.3 s.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Agraeciini and Conocephalini (Tettigoniidae: Conocephalinae) from the ParNa Iguaçu. A and B: Agraecia agraecioides, male and female; C and D: Iaratrox maculata, male and female; E and F: Parasubria vittipes, male and female; G and H: Conocephalus (Anisoptera) saltator, male and female; I and J: Conocephalus (Opeastylus) longipes, male and female; K and L: Xiphelimum amplipennis, male and female

FIGURE 4. Calling songs of Conocephalini from the ParNa Iguaçu. A–C: Conocephalus (Anisoptera) saltator; D–F: Conocephalus (Opeastylus) longipes. A and D: sonogram of an echeme; B and E: sonogram of three syllables; C and F: spectrogram of the respective syllables.

FIGURE 8. Live specimens of Conocephalinae in ParNa Iguaçu: A and B: Iaratrox maculata, male and female; C: Parasubria vittipes, female; D: Xiphelimum amplipennis, male; E: Conocephalus saltator, male; F: Lamniceps gigliotosi, female; G: Neoconocephalus puiggarii, male; H: N. rioclarensis, male; I: N. alligattus, male; J: N. exaltatus, male; A, D and G–J, photos by Marcos Fianco; B, C and E, photos by Pedro. G.B. Souza-Dias.