Segestidea novaeguineae (Brancski, 1897)

Morris, Glenn K, Ingrisch, Sigfrid, Willemse, Fer, Willemse, Luc, De Luca, Paul A. & Klimas, Dita, 2025, Stridulation songs of some Tettigoniidae (Ensifera, Orthoptera) from Papua New Guinea, Zootaxa 5600 (1), pp. 1-81 : 33-35

publication ID

https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5600.1.1

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:C553BC28-88FF-481D-A639-2188B29DABE7

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14970548

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03A6895C-FFEA-FFEF-FF6C-D5BEFC53148F

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Plazi (2025-03-05 07:58:06, last updated 2025-03-05 08:10:31)

scientific name

Segestidea novaeguineae (Brancski, 1897)
status

 

Segestidea novaeguineae (Brancski, 1897) View in CoL

( Figs 33 View FIGURE 33 , 34 View FIGURE 34 )

Specimens studied. (1 male) Papua New Guinea, McAdam Nat. Park , Bulolo Gorge, 28 viii 1981, Coll. G.K.Morris.

Systematics. The male fits perfectly the redescription (F. Willemse 1977, 1979).

Comments. Common name palm katydid. Several Sexava spp. are pests of Oil Palm ( Page 2005).

Distribution. The locality of this species is covered by the distribution as mapped in F. Willemse (1977, 1979).

Stridulation. Sustained over many seconds, the buzzes of the single recorded male ( Fig. 34A View FIGURE 34 ) time resolved to regularly repeated wave trains of about 60 ms duration ( Fig. 34B View FIGURE 34 ) with a regular period of a quarter second (0.25 s). The trains are characterized by a highly erratic amplitude envelope ( Fig. 34B View FIGURE 34 ). Spectrum frequencies formed one broad aggregate in the audio range ( Fig. 34D View FIGURE 34 ): for 10 averaged calls this aggregate centred on 10.0 kHz. Though the spectrum is markedly low Q, the waveform of the pulse is not a train of distinctly time-separated transients and at higher time resolution these are seen to be almost sinusoid ( Fig 34C View FIGURE 34 ); visible are distortions of the sine waves which might be the result of overloading the recording equipment or alternatively of a low sampling rate.

A related species Sexava femorata C. Willemse , exhibits mandibular stridulation as a protest sound.A restrained female moved her labrum to and fro, sliding it “vertically over the anterior surface of her mandibles” ( Lloyd & Gurney 1975). Working with a recorder (Uher 4000 Report L) limited to the audio frequency range these authors found sound spectral energy for this defensive strigin near 3.5 kHz.

Lloyd, J. E. & Gurney, A. B. (1975) Labral stridulation in a katydid (a coconut-infesting Treehopper ) (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Mecopodinae). Entomological News, 86, 47-50.

Page, B. W. (2005) Sexava pests of oil palm. Oil Palm Research Association Technical Note 6. Available from: https://www.pngopra.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/OPRAtive-Word-Tech-Note-6-Sexava.pdf (accessed 20 February 2025)

Willemse, F. (1977) Classification and distribution of the Sexavae of the Melanesian Subregion (Orthoptera, Tettigonioidea, Mecopodinae). Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, 120 (8), 213-277.

Willemse, F. (1979) Additional notes on the Sexavae of the Melanesian Subregion (Orthoptera, Tettigonioidea, Mecopodinae).

Gallery Image

FIGURE 33. Segestidea novaeguineae strigin:A) Figs 6,7 from F.Willemse 1977 clarifies venation posterior to Cu2 contributing to overmirror fold; B) Fig. 107 from F. Willemse 1977, straight file of many broad teeth, note absence of basal block; C) Dorsal aspect of right tegmen strigin showing fold cantilevers only modestly over mirror.

Gallery Image

FIGURE 34. Segestidea novaeguineae sound analysis: B&K 2203 SL meter and 4165 ½” B&K microphone, equipment insensitive above 40 kHz.A) Coarse time resolution of song shows 19 phonatome emissions; B) One such phonatome at higher time resolution showing characteristically variable amplitudes; C) Time domain sample excerpt from B at high resolution; D) Spectrum of the sound in B, single broad low-Q peak centred on 9.4 kHz.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Orthoptera

Family

Tettigoniidae

Genus

Segestidea