The article shares findings from empirical research describing the morphology and calls of two previously undescribed katydid (insect) species in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. The work was done by collaborators from UNC-Asheville, the College of Coastal Georgia and Elon University, and the article appears in the "Journal of Orthoptera Research."
Jen Hamel, associate professor in the Department of Biology, has co-authored an article in the current issue of the “Journal of Orthoptera Research” that describes the morphology and calls of two previously undescribed katydid (insect) species endemic to the southern Appalachian Mountains of western NC.
The article, “Calling songs and duets of two new species in the Amblycorypha rotundifolia complex (Tettigoniidae, Phaneropterinae),” was co-authored by Hamel, Timothy G. Forrest (first author) of the University of North Carolina, Asheville and C. Tate Holbrook of the College of Coastal Georgia. The research was conducted at the University of North Carolina Asheville.
This study reported the results of a study that examined the physical features, calling songs, and duets of two closely related species of katydids. These two species are members of a group of recently diverged and cryptic species, the Amblycorypha rotundifolia complex, in which the physical features of each species are very similar, and calling song is the best characteristic for distinguishing among them. In this group of animals, males produce calling songs to attract prospective mates, and females produce short syllables – “ticks” – in precisely timed, duetting responses to the males.
The paper discusses the evolution of signal complexity in this group of animals. Unlike other members of this species complex, males of the two newly described species (Amblycorypha zipticka and A. monticola) each have calling songs with multiple components, or types of syllables. In addition to the other kinds of syllables they produce, males of both species also produce ticks that resemble the tick responses of females, and at the same time intervals when females produce them. Male ticks are hypothesized to be acoustic countermeasures to eavesdropping by other males who are competing for mating opportunities.
Understanding how insect communication is shaped by ecology and evolution is a focus of research in Hamel’s research group.
The “Journal of Orthoptera Research” is a peer-reviewed, open-access, international journal published by the Orthopterist Society, and its primary focus is to publish studies of the insect order Orthoptera – the group of insects that includes crickets, katydids, and grasshoppers, and other closely related groups. Its goal is the dissemination of ideas and insights arising from the study of these insects.